Department for Transport

Aviation: Fares

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that the total cost of booking a flight is made clear to customers.

Jesse Norman: The Government expects passengers to be made fully aware of costs when booking a flight. Through the current Aviation 2050 consultation the Department is considering a new Passenger Charter that will include standards for booking information, and clear terms and conditions. The Civil Aviation Authority is engaging with industry to ensure that their terms and conditions are transparent, prominent and fair. Any recommendations resulting from this work may be adopted as part of the Charter.

South Eastern Rail Franchise

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects to award the next Southeastern franchise.

Andrew Jones: We expect to make the award for the next franchise this year. Officials at my Department are working to deliver the best possible outcome for passengers and taxpayers and they are focused on delivering a successful outcome for the competition. It is our aim to communicate any developments in relation to the franchise soon as possible.

Road Traffic: Dover

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the pubic purse was of the live trial held on 7 January 2019 of an emergency traffic congestion system to be used in Dover in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chris Grayling: The cost to reimburse hauliers for the operational and time costs and the owners of Manston airfield for site management costs was £60,000-65,000. There will also have been some costs incurred by Kent Police and Kent County Council associated with their staff attending the trial. These and other costs for, if necessary, using Manston to hold HGVs are considered appropriate against the very high economic and traffic congestion associated with closing the M20 if we could not use Manston.

Department for Transport: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Chris Grayling: Government Departments continue to engage with a wide range of businesses to understand their priorities and issues as we leave the European Union, both to inform our negotiating position, and our preparations in the unlikely event of there being no deal. Departments can make use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when structuring their engagements on preparations for leaving the EU, which is a crucial component of planning. It is for departments to determine the manner in which engagement with stakeholders takes place. Given the sensitive nature of some discussions, there may be limited circumstances in which departments have used NDAs to enable those conversations, thereby reaching more stakeholders than would otherwise be the case. NDAs are also a common component of contractual arrangements that are used to protect commercial considerations of the parties involved or to protect sensitives around the development of Government policy. It is entirely normal practice to use such agreements and they are therefore sometimes necessary for Government departments who are responsible for managing their preparations for leaving the EU.

Ramsgate Port

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has provided Thanet Council to (a) dredge and (b) upgrade Ramsgate port by March 2019.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to PQ 205175.

Ramsgate Port: Channel Ferries

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the last scheduled freight ferry service sailed from Ramsgate port; and what the destination of that service was.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The last regular scheduled freight ferry service from Ramsgate sailed in 2013, the destination being Ostend.

Channel Ferries: Freight

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of additional sailings per (a) day and (b) week there will be under the contracts recently awarded by his Department to (i) DFDS, (ii) Seaborne Freight and (iii) Brittany Ferries for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Specific sailing timetables are a matter for operators.

Channel Ferries: Freight

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many ferry freight routes in addition to existing routes will operate under the contracts recently awarded by his Department to (a) DFDS, (b) Seaborne Freight and (c) Brittany Ferries for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services; and if he will publish each UK port from which those services can be operated.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: I refer the Honourable Member to the Written Statement laid by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State on 7 January.

Dover Port: Channel Ferries

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If he will list the roll-on roll-off freight volumes re-directed from Dover port under the contracts recently awarded by his Department to (a) DFDS, (b) Seaborne Freight and (c) Brittany Ferries for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The additional capacity secured is equivalent to approximately 8 per cent of current short Strait traffic.

Channel Ferries: Freight

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport,  what the cost to the public purse has been to date of the contracts recently awarded by his Department to (a) DFDS, (b) Seaborne Freight and (c) Brittany Ferries for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: No payments have been made to operators for the provision of ferry services. No payments for services will be made until such services are provided.

Channel Ferries: Freight

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date his Department formally notified the shipping industry of the Government’s intention to issue public contracts for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to PQ 205166.

Channel Ferries: Freight

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what dates officials of his Department began discussions with (a) DFDS, (b) Seaborne Freight and (c) Brittany Ferries on public contracts for roll-on roll-off freight ferry services.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 15 January 2019.The correct answer should have been:

I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave to [PQ 246725].  UIN 205166.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave to [PQ 246725].  UIN 205166.

Channel Ferries

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had since January 2018 with the UK Chamber of Shipping on public contracts for roll-on roll-off ferry services from UK ports.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Ministers have not met the UK Chamber of Shipping to discuss public contracts for roll-on roll-off ferry services.

Channel Ferries

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the French Government on public contracts for roll-on roll-off ferry services between UK and French ports after the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019; and if he will make a statement.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: None.

High Speed Two: Disclosure of Information

Antoinette Sandbach: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which local authorities have entered into non-disclosure agreements with High Speed Two Limited.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: HS2 Ltd has entered into non-disclosure agreements – also known as confidentiality agreements - with a number of local authorities to enable the sharing of confidential or commercially sensitive information in connection with the delivery of HS2. Disclosure concerning those agreements is subject to obligations of confidentiality but, to the extent I can identify local authorities, the following have entered into such agreements:  Solihull Metropolitan Borough CouncilWarwickshire County CouncilStaffordshire County CouncilLichfield District CouncilStafford Borough CouncilCheshire East CouncilShropshire CouncilBolsover District CouncilErewash Borough CouncilTrafford Borough CouncilCheshire East CouncilNottingham City CouncilNorth East Derbyshire District CouncilBolsover District CouncilRushcliffe Borough CouncilNorth Yorkshire County CouncilDoncaster Borough CouncilRotherham Metropolitan Borough CouncilChesterfield Borough CouncilLeeds City CouncilCouncil of the City of WakefieldBarnsley Metropolitan Borough councilNorth West Leicestershire District CouncilNottinghamshire County CouncilCheshire West & Chester CouncilWarwickshire County CouncilTamworth Borough CouncilNewcastle Under Lyme Borough CouncilStoke City Council;Warrington Borough Council; andDerbyshire County Council

Portsmouth Port: Road Traffic

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on traffic levels around Portsmouth International Port.

Jesse Norman: I refer the Honourable Member to the letter which my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State wrote to him on 10 January.

Taxis: Licensing

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his department has made of the cost to the public purse of creating a national database of all licensed taxi and PHV drivers, vehicles and operator, as recommended by the September 2018 report of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing; and if he will make a statement.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Ministers are considering the recommendations made by the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing, including the establishment of a national licensing database. A Government response will be issued in due course.

Bus Services

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make a comparative assessment of the cost (a) to consumers and (b) of the provision of bus services in (i) London and (ii) Newcastle.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Bus fares and services in London are the responsibility of Transport for London. Outside London, bus fares and services are deregulated and set by bus operators. We have no plans to carry out a comparative assessment of the cost to consumers and the cost of provision of bus services.

Ramsgate Port: Channel Ferries

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to ensure that the (a) tendering process, (b) contract and (c) funding for the re-opening of the Ostend to Ramsgate ferry route complies with (i) the Concession Agreement with Eurotunnel, (ii) state aid rules and (iii) competition law; and if he will make a statement.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: In the Government's view, the contracts do not breach the concession agreement with Eurotunnel. Obligations under competition and state aid law were taken into account as part of the contractual process.

Ramsgate Port: Channel Ferries

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the port of Ostend on the proposed re-opening of the Ostend to Ramsgate ferry route.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Government is not a party to any contract with the port of Ostend. The operational plans for the Ostend to Ramsgate ferry route have been reviewed by my Department.

Ramsgate Port: Dredging

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what Environment Impact Assessment has been undertaken by Seaborne Freight prior to the dredging of the port of Ramsgate.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Work undertaken at ports, including compliance with any regulatory standards, is a matter for the relevant port authorities.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Renewable Energy: Finance

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost of supporting renewable generation over the next five years; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the level of renewable levy exemptions available to UK steel producers.

Claire Perry: The Office for Budget Responsibility published estimates of the costs of renewable generation at time of the Budget. Please see table 2.7 of the Supporting document entitled ‘October 2018 Economic and fiscal outlook – supplementary fiscal tables: receipts and other’. Eligible energy intensive businesses in the UK receive relief from up to 85% of the indirect costs of support for renewable electricity deployment through the Contracts for Difference, Renewables Obligation and small-scale Feed-in Tariff schemes. State aid rules set out that any additional relief above 85% must be limited to an amount that is determined by the business’s Gross Value Added (GVA). A decision to provide additional relief would therefore lead to companies producing the same product receiving different percentage levels of relief depending on their GVA. The Coalition Government consulted on providing additional relief from the indirect costs of renewable electricity as allowed under the state aid rules, but concluded that to do so could distort competition in the UK market. The Government keeps this assessment under review. Relief from renewable electricity costs is part of a wider package of measures to reduce the cumulative impact of energy and climate change policies on industrial electricity prices for key energy intensive industries. This includes a package of compensation for these industries worth over £850 million since 2013, of which more than £270 million has been provided to the steel sector.

Energy Intensive Industries

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of exempting electro-intensive industries from capacity market costs.

Claire Perry: Our assessment is that exempting electricity intensive industries from Capacity Market costs is not compatible with State aid guidelines. This remains our view as we work to restore State aid approval for the Capacity Market as soon as possible. The Capacity Market is the most cost effective way of ensuring we have the electricity we need now and in the future. This ensures all energy consumers – including energy intensive industries – benefit from a secure and affordable supply of electricity. Some Energy Intensive Industries can also receive payments through the Capacity Markets by participating as turn-down Demand Side Response, where they are compensated for reducing their consumption during times of stress.

Energy: Conservation

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help consumers reduce their energy usage.

Claire Perry: The Government is committed to help all consumers – both households and businesses – to reduce their energy usage, taking control of their bills and helping us meet our clean growth ambitions. In our Clean Growth Strategy, we set out our aspiration to upgrade as many homes as possible to an Energy Performance Certificate Band C by 2035, where practical, cost effective and affordable. We have taken a number of steps to deliver this aim: this year, we launched the digitally-led Simple Energy Advice service to provide impartial, tailored advice on how homeowners can cut energy bills and make their homes greener, and also launched a new quality mark, through Trustmark, to help give consumers confidence in the quality of the measures being installed in their homes. And, in April 2018, we introduced new legislation requiring landlords of both residential and commercial buildings to improve their properties to Energy Performance Certificate Band E or higher. We will also shortly publish an action plan on building the market for energy efficiency, outlining a range of market-based measures in line with this aspiration. Alongside this, the Energy Company Obligation obligates the larger energy suppliers to install energy efficiency and heating measures to people’s homes to help reduce their energy use. Since January 2013, the scheme has delivered over 2.4 million improvements in around 1.9m homes. It is funded at £640m per year and this level of support will continue to 2028, meaning the Government will drive more than £6 billion of investment in domestic energy efficiency over the next ten years. The Clean Growth Strategy also set out our ambition to enable business consumers to reduce their energy usage by improving energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. We have introduced a more streamlined energy and carbon reporting framework to help businesses reduce their carbon emissions and associated energy costs. We have also launched a new £18 million Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme supporting the recovery and re-use of industrial waste heat, and committed £8.8 million to promote innovative approaches to energy management using smart meters. We also announced at Budget 2018 up to £315m for an Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support businesses with high energy use to invest in energy efficiency and decarbonisation measures, and that we would bring forward proposals on a new energy efficiency scheme for small and medium sized enterprises.

Energy: Research

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has allocated funding for new research on clean energy.

Claire Perry: The Government has committed to spending over £2.5bn on research into low carbon innovation, including clean energy, between 2015 and 2021. This includes £505m of spending on BEIS’s Energy Innovation Programme, which aims to accelerate the commercial deployment of clean energy technologies and processes into the coming decades, and up to £1.2 billion of funding from UK Research and Innovation, including funding for the Energy Systems Catapult and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. Recent announcements of funding have included £102m for the Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge, to develop future smart energy systems and prove their use at scale, and up to £170m for decarbonising Industrial Clusters. Further informationProspering from the Energy Revolution: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prospering-from-the-energy-revolution-full-programme-detailsDecarbonising Industrial Clusters: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-first-carbon-net-zero-hub-of-heavy-industry-to-help-uk-seize-global-economic-opportunities-of-clean-growth

Research: Finance

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to replace funding for UK researchers from the (a) European Research Council and (b) Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions after the UK leaves the EU.

Chris Skidmore: If there is a deal, and the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the UK will continue to be able to participate in Horizon 2020 until the end of the programme. This includes access to funding for UK researchers from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). In the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario, the Government has committed to underwrite all successful UK bids submitted to Horizon 2020 before EU exit, including ERC and MSCA funded projects. Through the extension to the guarantee, the Government has also committed to fund all UK participants’ funding in all Horizon 2020 calls open to third country participants from the date of exit. This would cover the lifetime of projects, even if they last beyond 2020. We are very conscious, though, that third country participation is not possible for nearly all ERC and some MSCA grants. The Government is considering what other measures may be necessary to support UK research and innovation in the event that the guarantee and the extension are required. We are working with stakeholders to identify appropriate measures that could be put in place in the period immediately after EU Exit, if needed.

Pacific: Climate Change

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking with his international counterparts to monitor implementation of the (a) Capacity Building for International Negotiations Programme in the Pacific Region and (b) Pacific Regional Nationally Determined Contributions Hub.

Claire Perry: Monitoring of the Capacity Building for International Negotiations programme will begin on completion of the delivery contract, which is currently being finalised following procurement. As with all BEIS International Climate Finance funding, the programme will be monitored and reported upon in line with cross government good practice, including the publication of annual reviews of progress on implementation, financial reporting and value for money. This will include activities conducted in the Pacific region. The German Development Agency GIZ (who are setting up the Pacific Regional Nationally Determined Contributions Hub) are submitting quarterly reports to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on how funds are being spent and progress against pre-agreed indicators. In addition, the British High Commission in Suva meet GIZ at least once a month.

Public Houses: Closures

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent pub closures.

Kelly Tolhurst: Several measures have been introduced across Government to support pubs, including a freeze on beer duty announced at Budget 2018. This means that the price of a typical pint of beer in 2019 will be 2p lower than it would have been had duty increased with inflation and 14p lower than it otherwise would have been since ending the beer duty escalator in 2013. Many small pubs will benefit from the business rates retail discount announced at Budget 2018, which cuts bills by one third from April 2019 for two years. It is available to pubs with a rateable value below £51,000 and is worth almost £900 million to businesses over two years. The Government estimates up to 75% of pubs in England could be eligible for the discount, subject to state aid limits and eligibility for other reliefs.

Energy: Housing

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he he has made of the level of demand for (a) home electricity generation and (b) a domestic energy storage unit.

Claire Perry: As of September 2018, the Feed-In Tariff scheme had delivered 749,327 household installations with a total generation capacity of 2.8GW. The impact assessment accompanying the consultation and response to the Feed-In Tariff closure provides an assessment of future small-scale low-carbon installations across different capacity sizes, including the 0-10kW band which most household generation falls under.The Impact Assessment is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/feed-in-tariffs-scheme.As domestic energy storage is a relatively new technology Government does not yet have an assessment of the level of consumer demand. Government will continue to engage with industry bodies and stakeholders to understand how this market is likely to develop.

Energy

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number of energy companies that have ceased trading over the last two years and (b) the number of customers affected by those cessations; and which companies took on those customers in each case.

Claire Perry: There are now over 60 domestic energy suppliers in the market, up from 13 in 2010. There have been 14 domestic energy supplier exits since November 2016, with an approximately 1 million customer accounts affected. The details of what company took them on is publicly available.

Energy Supply: Registration

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to revisit the registration process for energy supply organisations.

Claire Perry: Ofgem, as expert regulator, are currently undertaking a review of their approach to licensing suppliers to ensure customer interests are protected in an evolving market. The review will consider enhanced criteria for market entry and ongoing monitoring.

Tidal Power

Luke Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to promote tidal power schemes since the decision was taken not to fund the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project.

Claire Perry: The Department has had regular engagement with Parliamentary colleagues and industry to discuss energy policy matters, including on tidal energy.Since 2003 the Government has made £174m innovation and grant funding available to wave, tidal stream technologies (£80m of that since 2010). As set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, wave, tidal stream and tidal range technologies could have a role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK, but they will need to demonstrate how they can compete with other forms of generation.

Domestic Appliances: Environment Protection

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to adopt the EU Ecodesign Directive on improving the environmental performance of appliances after the UK leaves the EU.

Claire Perry: The Department laid a Statutory Instrument in Parliament on 19th December 2018 which will bring all direct EU Ecodesign legislation that is operative before exit day into UK law. This will ensure that all existing minimum energy performance standards for energy-using products remain in force after the UK leaves the EU. I expect this to be debated in Parliament in the coming weeks.

Green Deal Scheme: Feed-in Tariffs

Bill Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has plans to extend the Green Deal scheme to cover people that are seeking to withdraw from a feed-in tariff contract to sell their property.

Claire Perry: The Government has no plans at present to extend the Green Deal scheme, but we are reviewing the scheme and will consult before making any significant changes. The interests of the consumer will be foremost in the review. Whilst the Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) scheme allows for householders to assign the rights to FIT payments to third parties, for example under a rent-a-roof scheme, it does not prescribe how such arrangements should work; it is for the parties involved to arrive at a mutually beneficial agreement. These are private agreements entered into between the consumer and the third party which are not regulated by the Green Deal regulatory framework or the FIT scheme. We would always advise householders who are considering entering into such an agreement to seek legal advice before doing so to satisfy themselves that the proposal being offered will be acceptable to them.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Iran: Human Rights

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the authorities in Iran on upholding the human rights of (a) Christians and (b) other religious and ethnic minorities in that country; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: ​Iran's human rights record continues to be of serious concern to the UK, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has designated it as one of its Human Rights Priority Countries. The continued restrictions on freedoms of expression, religion and belief are deeply worrying, as is the discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities. While some religious minorities are formally protected in the constitution, the reality is that many non-Muslims face discrimination. Despite constitutional recognition, the persecution of Christians has been continuous, systemic, and institutionalised, and we are particularly concerned by the continuing systematic discrimination, harassment and targeting of members of the Baha'i faith. We regularly raise the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities in Iran with the Iranian Government, and we continue to take action with the international community to press Iran to improve its poor record on all human rights issues.

Mediterranean Sea: Rescue Services

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with (a) the EU and (b) his counterparts in other EU member states on finding a port of safety for the vessel Sea Watch 3; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Alan Duncan: The incident involving the 'Sea-Watch 3' has already been resolved. Malta, which had granted Sea-Watch 3 access to its territorial waters to shelter from storms, and to change crews and re-supply, announced on 9 January that the 49 migrants on board Sea-Watch 3 and another Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) vessel will be relocated to nine European states. During the period that Sea-Watch 3 was seeking a port of safety, the Government engaged with relevant counterparts in Valletta, The Hague and Brussels in support of a solution.

Diplomatic Immunity

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to make people with diplomatic immunity accountable if they are accused of committing serious crimes in the UK.

Sir Alan Duncan: The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) requires persons enjoying diplomatic privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. The VCDR also recognises that the purpose of privileges and immunities is not to benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient performance of the functions of diplomatic missions. The UK Government takes a firm line with diplomats or their family members who are alleged to have committed serious offences. The police and other law enforcement agencies pursue all allegations. In the most serious cases, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asks for the diplomat or family member in question to be withdrawn from the UK unless he or she cooperates with any investigation under a waiver of immunity granted by their government or international organisation.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Sir Alan Duncan: The FCO hold no central records of non-disclosure agreements with any third party. Authority to enter into contracts is devolved to individual Directorates and Posts; it would not be possible to search all records without incurring disproportionate cost.

Iran: Females

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Iranian counterpart on the protection of human rights of women in Iran.

Alistair Burt: ​Iran's human rights record continues to be of serious concern to the UK, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has designated it as one of its Human Rights Priority Countries. Women do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men in Iran and continue to face discrimination. We regularly raise the human rights of women with the Iranians at all levels, including at ministerial level, and we continue to take action with the international community through the EU and UN to press Iran to improve its poor record on the human rights of women in Iran.

British Indian Ocean Territory: Coinage

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Treasury's news story of 6 January 2019 New pound coin goes global with rollout to British overseas nations, whether his Department has any plans to design and mint a £1 coin celebrating the heritage of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Sir Alan Duncan: We recognise the importance of the heritage of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and its biodiversity as one of the last undisturbed ecosystems in the world. Although the British Indian Ocean Territory Administration does mint commemorative coins, it does not have plans to mint one of the new £1 coins for BIOT.

Pacific: Climate Change

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the outcomes were of the Wilton Park Forum on Climate Change and Resilience in relation to improving climate resilience in the Pacific Region.

Mark Field: The UK and New Zealand Governments cosponsored the Wilton Park Forum on Climate Change and Resilience, which took place between 16th and 18th December 2018, as part of our shared commitment to support international action on climate change. The Pacific Island countries are uniquely affected by climate change and this high-level dialogue brought together Pacific leaders, development partners, civil society and academics to look at the Pacific priorities and concerns and identify options to support and amplify the Pacific Islands' powerful call for ambitious international action.The detailed discussions helped to promote new partnerships and develop fresh perspectives, and potential policy responses that respond to Pacific needs and priorities.Participants collaborated on the identification of key challenges to the Pacific region resulting from climate change, focussing on four key areas of climate change for the Pacific – finance, the oceans-climate nexus, security and migration. The consensus on all four areas was that further work was needed to tackle the range of challenges that existed.Wilton Park will release a formal report, including future policy options, by the end of January. Officials in both London and Wellington will consider these policy options. There is a clear desire from participants to have further discussions in the Pacific region on these issues ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum next August.

British Nationals Abroad: Forced Marriage

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the total cost to the Official Development Assistance budget of supporting UK nationals who are victims of forced marriages.

Harriett Baldwin: ​No Official Development Assistance budget is used to support UK nationals who are victims of forced marriages.

Sudan: Demonstrations

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many protesters have been reported to have been (a) detained, (b) tortured and (c) killed by Sudanese authorities since demonstrations began on 19 December 2018; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: Reports of the number of detainees, deaths and injuries vary. On 12 January the Government of Sudan reported that 24 deaths had occurred. Activist groups and Non-Governmental Organisations assess the number to be considerably higher. We are unable to verify these figures independently, but we continue to express our deep concern at the current situation, both bilaterally and as part of the Troika (with the USA and Norway). We are urging the Government of Sudan to respect the Sudanese people's right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and to ensure those responsible for the deaths of protestors are held to account. We expect political activists, human rights defenders, journalists and others who are being detained without charge or trial to be released immediately, and for all detainees to be treated in accordance with international standards. We continue to monitor the situation closely.

Sudan: Demonstrations

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Sudanese counterpart on the Sudanese authorities' response to the protests in that country.

Harriett Baldwin: On 9 January the British Ambassador registered the UK's concern directly with Sudan's Acting Foreign Minister regarding the level of violence used to disperse peaceful protests in Sudan. He reiterated the messages in the public statement made by the Troika (Norway/ UK/ US) and Canada on 8 January urging the government to respect the Sudanese people's right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and to ensure those responsible for the deaths of protestors are held to account.

Sudan: Demonstrations

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what effect the (a) response of the Government of Sudan to the recent protests in that country and (b) Troika government's statement published on 8 January 2019 will have on the UK-Sudan Strategic Dialogue due to take place in 2019.

Harriett Baldwin: ​We continue to monitor closely the Government of Sudan's response to the recent protests, and to express our concern at the current situation, both bilaterally and as part of the Troika with the US and Norway. As we made clear with Troika partners and Canada in our statement of 8 January, the Government of Sudan's response to these protests will have an impact on the approach to engagement of our governments and others in the coming months and years.

Sudan: Foreign Relations

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what joint programmes on security are ongoing between the UK Government and the Government of Sudan.

Harriett Baldwin: There are no current joint security programmes between the UK and Government of Sudan. The extent of UK funded defence engagement with the Government of Sudan is limited to the provision of a small scale education programme to the regular Sundanese armed forces that focuses on International Humanitarian Law, the Law of Armed Conflict and on Governance and Security Sector Reform. This is achieved through the teaching of English language and graduate-level lectures, using professionally qualified teachers, academics and lawyers.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Elections

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many observers the Government sent to the recent election in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and when those observers are expected to report back on the fairness of that election.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK has supported political engagement and strengthening of electoral processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), funding civic and electoral education, electoral observation, and institutional support. We co-supported approximately 20,000 of the 40,000 observers deployed by the Committee of the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo (CENCO), who covered all voting centres across the country. On 10 January CENCO confirmed that the provisional results announced by the electoral commission are not in line with the data collected by their observation mission. A small number of UK embassy staff were also on the ground on election day to unofficially monitor the situation, but are not in a position to report on the fairness of the election as a wholeThe leader of the opposition in DRC, Martin Fayulu, has contested the results and filed an appeal in the constitutional court. As the Foreign Secretary said in a tweet on 14 January, due process must be respected on this legal challenge. This is a critical moment for DRC and the wider region.

Guatemala: Politics and Government

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to support the work of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala following recent attempts by the Guatemalan Government to shut the commission down.

Sir Alan Duncan: The UK has been a vocal advocate of anti-corruption efforts and the valuable work carried out by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to support and strengthen Guatemalan national institutions. In response, I have released a statement expressing our disappointment at the Guatemalan governments attempt to prevent CICIG carrying out its mandate. The UK also joined statements of the EU and the G13 local donor group condemning Guatemala's decision to unilaterally terminate the agreement establishing CICIG and calling on the Guatemalan government to uphold the rule of law. The UK will continue to monitor developments, through our Embassy in Guatemala, and call upon the Guatemalan government to allow CICIG to complete its mandate and ensure the security of its staff.

Attorney General

Queen's Counsel: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been appointed as Queen's Counsel in Northern Ireland in the last three years.

Robert Buckland: The appointment of Queen’s Counsel in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter for which the Northern Ireland Department of Justice has responsibility.

Department of Health and Social Care

Dementia: Home Care Services

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he can facilitate a meeting between the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish, the chief executive of Tameside and Glossop NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and the hon. Member's constituent Lisa Evans to discuss the effect of integrated dementia home care services in Tameside.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet the hon Member for Denton and Reddish to discuss the accountability of the chief executive of Tameside and Glossop NHS Clinical Commissioning Group in respect of the case of the hon. Member's constituent Lisa Evans.

Caroline Dinenage: It would be inappropriate for the Secretary of State to intervene regarding these matters as there are separate statutory processes for dealing with complaints. In particular, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has extensive powers to address individuals’ concerns if the organisation has failed to satisfy the constituent so far.

Human Papillomavirus: Vaccination

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure education for young adults on HPV vaccination and cervical screening.

Steve Brine: Public Health England (PHE) developed a range of materials targeted at teenagers and their parents to provide information about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme to help them make an informed choice. Local immunisation providers should share this information and signpost teenagers and their parents to these materials when the offer of HPV vaccination is underway in schools. PHE also provides information and training materials for health professionals to ensure they can adequately respond to queries or concerns. In March 2019, PHE will launch a national campaign to highlight the risks of cervical cancer to encourage all eligible women to attend their cervical screening appointment. In addition, PHE has also worked closely with a number of charities such as Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and the Teenage Cancer Trust to develop lesson plans for schools to use to teach young people about cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine.

Medicine: Innovation

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he will take to ensure that (a) innovations in technology and the use of data transform the health service and (b) the UK remains at the forefront of life sciences.

Caroline Dinenage: Our vision for how technology and innovation can be harnessed to transform health and care was set out in the paper, ‘The Future of Healthcare: Our Vision for Digital, Data and Technology in Health and Care’, published on 17 October 2018, and is at the heart of the NHS Long Term Plan published last week. The Life Sciences Sector Deal 2, published in December 2018 just over a year after the first, also contains complementary measures to deliver on these aims. The ambitious Sector Deals set out how government and the sector will work closely together and invest to keep the United Kingdom at the forefront of life sciences, delivering both for the economy and UK patients.

General Practitioners: Crimes of Violence

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have been allocated to the Special Allocation Scheme in each year since 2010.

Steve Brine: The following table presents the number of patients that have been removed from general practitioner (GP) practice lists in England and placed on a Special Allocation Scheme between 2016 and 2018. Data prior to April 2016 was not collected or held centrally.​YearSpecial Allocation Scheme​2016​​1,252​20172,055​​20181,686Notes:- 2018 includes data to November 2018.- 2016 includes data from April to December 2016. NHS England has a responsibility to ensure that all patients can access good quality GP services. The Special Allocation Scheme was created to ensure that patients who have been removed from a practice patient list can continue to access healthcare services at an alternative, specific GP practice.

Additives: Regulation

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Food Standards Agency on (a) the regulation of colouring and other food additives and (b) the role of the European Food Safety Authority in that regulation in the event that the UK leaves the EU.

Steve Brine: Our priority is to maintain the United Kingdom’s high standards of food safety. To help deliver this the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is preparing secondary legislation to ensure a functioning body of law is in place following the UK’s exit from the European Union; this includes legislation on colours added to food and other food additives. The intention is to lay these statutory instruments before Parliament, using powers under the EU Withdrawal Act. This legislation will provide continuity and clarity for UK food businesses, as well as reassurance for consumers that existing levels of public health protection and food safety are being maintained. Options for the future risk assessment and scientific advice for food and feed safety in the UK are being developed by the FSA. As part of the exit negotiations, we are seeking to continue our close working relationship with the European Food Safety Authority, whilst strengthening our existing risk assessment capacity.

Orkambi

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with (a) NHS England (b) NICE and (c) Vertex on access to Orkambi for cystic fibrosis sufferers; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: Officials in the Department have had a number of discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England on the availability of Orkambi. NICE and NHS England are leading the dialogue with Vertex Pharmaceuticals around access to its portfolio of cystic fibrosis medicines. It is critical that Vertex now re-engages fully with the NICE appraisal process and gives serious consideration to the portfolio deal offer that NHS England made at the end of July. This deal would provide immediate access for patients to all Vertex licensed medicines and future pipeline products once licensed and in advance of the individual NICE appraisals concluding. The Government fully supports the approach that NICE and NHS England are adopting.

Helium: Prices

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on (a) magnetic resonance imaging and (b) other medical services of changes in the (i) availability and (ii) cost of the price of helium.

Stephen Hammond: The Department does not expect the changes in the helium market to have any impact on the availability, operation and maintenance of magnetic resonance imaging equipment or other medical services in 2019.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency consultation on EU exit no-deal legislative proposals, published on 4 October 2018, which stakeholders did his Department approach for a response to that consultation.

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency consultation on EU exit no-deal legislative proposals, published on 4 October 2018, how many responses to that consultation raised concern about the consultation process; and if his Department will publish the responses to that consultation.

Stephen Hammond: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) public consultation on European Union exit 'no deal' legislative proposals ran from 4 October to 1 November 2018 and invited views from the life sciences sector, industry, allied healthcare professionals, medical charities and the public. The MHRA received 168 responses through the online portal and nine responses via email – none of which raised concerns about the consultation process. The MHRA has now published updated 'no deal' guidance, which includes changes based on the responses received to the consultation in October. This can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-guidance-note-on-the-regulation-of-medicines-medical-devices-and-clinical-trials-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

Dementia

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the (i) quality and (ii) availability of dementia care and (b) ensure that patients in receipt of dementia care are treated equitably.

Caroline Dinenage: Dementia remains a key priority for the Government. We will implement the Government’s Challenge on Dementia 2020, published in February 2015, in full to make sure the lives of those with dementia are transformed by 2020. Working with our partners, we continue to make progress against the ambitions set out in the March 2016 Implementation Plan which details how the commitments in the Challenge, across the four core themes of risk reduction, health and care, awareness and social action, and research will be met. Reducing health inequalities is an important priority and one that applies to all themes of the 2020 Challenge on Dementia. The Government also remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and the United Kingdom research community is playing a significant role in the global effort to find a cure or a major disease-modifying treatment by 2025. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to better support for people with dementia through a more active focus on supporting people in the community and ongoing close work with the voluntary sector, e.g. supporting Alzheimer’s Society’s dementia connect programme. In addition, the Department is working with the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a shared commitment to take action to achieve high quality adult social care for service users, families, carers and everyone working in the sector. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their whole local markets to ensure that they are sustainable, diverse and offer high quality care and support for people in their local area.

NHS: Drugs

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access: heads of agreement, published on 23 November 2018, whether NHS England’s commissioning support programme will be discontinued.

Steve Brine: It is expected that the commissioning support programme, which provides support for service development relating to medicines, as well as medical devices or other sorts of intervention, will continue for 2019/20. The new voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access includes new commitments to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraisals for medicines; any implications will be considered through implementation of the new scheme.

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to introduce an epigenetics-based test for cervical cancer on the NHS.

Steve Brine: The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has not reviewed the evidence for an epigenetics-based test within the cervical screening programme. It is important that any screening test introduced into a screening programme is based on robust published peer reviewed evidence demonstrating more good than harm. A change to the main screen test such as using epigenetics-based testing would be considered as a major programme modification to the cervical screening programme. Submissions to the UK NSC to consider a programme modification can be submitted throughout the year with more information available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-evidence-review-process NHS England is currently working to implement primary human papillomavirus screening in England.

Liothyronine: Prices

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with pharmaceutical companies on reducing the cost of the drug liothyronine.

Steve Brine: The Department has not had any discussions with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of liothyronine tablets. Liothyronine is an unbranded generic medicine. The Department encourages competition between suppliers of unbranded generic medicines to keep prices down. This generally works well and has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe. Concerns about anti-competitive behaviour are a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate. Liothyronine, marketed by Concordia, is currently the subject of an investigation by the CMA, which has provisionally found that Concordia abused its dominant position to overcharge the National Health Service by millions for liothyronine tablets. A provisional decision does not necessarily lead to an infringement decision. Where companies have breached competition law, the Department will seek damages and invest that money back into the NHS. The Department also has its own powers to limit prices of unbranded generic medicines and will consult early in 2019 with the relevant industry bodies on implementation of those powers.

Palliative Care: Children

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will provide guidance to local commissioners to encourage the commissioning of support for the siblings of children with life-threatening and terminal conditions.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding is available to support the siblings of children with palliative care needs.

Caroline Dinenage: In December 2016, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the guideline ‘End of Life Care for Infants, Children and Young People: Planning and Management’. This guidance emphasises the need to be aware that siblings will need support to cope with their brother's or sister's condition and death and the effects of their parents' or carers' grieving. This may include social, practical, psychological and spiritual support. To support implementation of the guidance NHS England commissioned Together for Short Lives, a leading children’s end of life care charity, to examine services across the country to identify best practice in implementation of the guidance, as well as barriers, through interviews with local NHS services. More information about this work and a copy of the NICE guidance can be found at the following links: www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk/changing-lives/supporting-care-professionals/introduction-childrens-palliative-care/nice-guidelines/ www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng61 Hospices providing children and young people’s palliative care can also provide important support to the families of those caring for children with life limiting conditions. NHS England has recently announced plans to increase funding for children’s hospices to as much as £25 million a year over the next five years, as part of the NHS long term plan.

Palliative Care: Children

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the needs of siblings of children with palliative care needs as part of the programme of work to deliver the Carers Action Plan.

Caroline Dinenage: The Government is committed to making sure young carers are not left behind. While some caring can be rewarding for young carers, they can experience poorer mental and physical health and miss out on opportunities in education and employment. We want to make sure that all young carers receive the support that they need. The Carers Action Plan aims to do this by focusing on improving the identification of young carers; improving their educational opportunities and outcomes; providing support to young carers, particularly to vulnerable children; and improving access to services. In December 2016 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published the guideline ‘End of Life Care for Infants, Children and Young People: Planning and Management’. The guidance emphasises the need to be aware that siblings will need support to cope with their brother's or sister's condition and death the effects of their parents' or carers' grieving. This may include social, practical, psychological and spiritual support.

Continuing Care

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims for continuing care payments remain outstanding since the deadline for applications was set.

Caroline Dinenage: In March 2012, deadlines were introduced for requests for an assessment for NHS Continuing Healthcare ‘previously unassessed periods of care’ between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2012 in England. Approximately 63,000 requests for an assessment were received, with approximately 25,000 resulting in a full assessment. As at 30 November 2018, the number of payments for periods of care within the 2004-2012 period that remain outstanding is 624. This number relates to cases which have been assessed as eligible (either initially or on appeal) and for which payments remain outstanding. Data on NHS Continuing Healthcare previously unassessed periods of care from April 2012 is not held.

Continuing Care

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of funding the outstanding retrospective claims under the continuing care programme; what interest rate is being applied to such claims; and what estimate he has made of the average cost to the public purse of those outstanding claims.

Caroline Dinenage: The estimated cost of reimbursement for the outstanding claims from periods of care between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2012 is £14.5 million. Data on claims for previously unassessed periods of care from 1 April 2012 is not held. The ‘NHS Continuing Healthcare Refreshed Redress Guidance’, published on 1 April 2015, advises clinical commissioning groups to calculate interest using the Retail Price Index. The estimated average cost per claim is £23,000.

Rare Diseases

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of treatments for patients with rare diseases since the introduction of the Orphan Medical Product Regulation 2000.

Steve Brine: The Government is committed to improving the lives of all those affected by a rare disease. Implementation plans by NHS England and the Department were published jointly in January 2018 and describe the actions and framework in place to deliver this commitment to improve the lives of those affected by rare disease, as defined in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. Through its technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plays an important role in ensuring that patients, including patients with rare diseases, are able to benefit from effective new treatments. NICE has recommended a number of drugs for rare diseases through these programmes that are now routinely funded by the National Health Service for eligible patients.

Palliative Care: Children

Steve Double: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) clinical commissioning groups and (b) local authorities take account of demand for children's palliative care in planning and funding services.

Caroline Dinenage: Work undertaken by NHS England and system partners at a national level includes supporting sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) planning to address end of life care in all settings, providing key data on services and populations to support appropriate planning and funding of end of life care. STPs bring together National Health Service, local authorities and other partners to agree system-wide priorities, and to plan collectively. NHS England is actively working to improve support to commissioners in funding and delivering children’s end of life care, and hospice care. In April 2017 NHS England made available a new specialist palliative care currency, one for adults and one for children, to support local areas in planning and delivering services, including hospice services. The currency can help local services better understand the complexity of palliative care and the investment needed to deliver it. NHS England also commissioned Together for Short Lives to promote the adoption of important new guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which sets out best practice on the care and treatment of children at the end of life. NHS England has established an Expert Group to bring together knowledge and expertise in children’s end of life care to consider the development of commissioning models suitable for this vulnerable group of patients. NHS England has identified clinical commissioning groups to pilot the new models and work is expected for completion in spring 2019.

Helen and Douglas House Hospice: Finance

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential increase in funding to Helen and Douglas House Hospice following NHS England's decision of 27 December 2019 to increase funding for the hospice grant programme.

Caroline Dinenage: No assessment has yet been made of the potential increase in funding for individual hospices, including Helen and Douglas House, which will follow from the overall planned increase in central funding. Children’s palliative and end of life care is an important priority for the National Health Service. Currently NHS England’s children’s hospice grant provides an annual contribution of £11 million. Over the next five years it will increase its contribution by match funding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services, including children’s hospices. Increases for individual hospices will be decided as part of this match funded process. However at national level the increase in the central grant is expected to more than double the NHS existing NHS funding from £11 million to a combined total of £25 million a year by 2023/24.

Health Services: Private Sector

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter entitled, Patient safety: letter to independent healthcare providers, published by his Department on 8 May 2018, what steps his Department is taking to improve patient safety in the private sector.

Caroline Dinenage: Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 all providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, have to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and meet a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. The Government recognises the useful role of the independent sector in adding capacity, promoting innovation and offering patient choice. The CQC raised important patient safety concerns in its ‘State of Care in Independent Acute Hospitals’ report, which the former Secretary of State (Rt. hon. Jeremy Hunt MP) committed to address in his letter of 8 May 2018 to chief executives of independent healthcare providers. The CQC continues to work with independent health care providers to improve the quality of care and safety including the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, formerly NHS Partners, and the Private Health Information Network. In addition, in its response to the Joint Committee on the Draft Health Service Safety Investigations Bill, the Government agreed to consult on extending the remit of the new body to investigate independently-funded health care. The CQC has now completed its programme of comprehensive inspections for all independent acute hospitals in England.

HIV Infection: Drugs

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will increase the number of places on the pre-exposure prophylaxis impact trial.

Steve Brine: The Department recognises the importance of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) impact trial. NHS England has announced its support for expansion of the trial and we are actively considering the next steps in relation to PrEP. We will make an announcement on this as soon as possible.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on reducing the cost of hormone replacement therapy for patients who pay multiple prescription charges for medication with more than one ingredient.

Steve Brine: Unless a valid exemption has been declared the statutory applicable charge of £8.80 is payable for each prescription item, such as a quantity of a drug, dispensed in the community in England. The Government has no plans to change this position in respect of combination packs of hormone replacement therapy medication comprised of multiple drugs. Accordingly, no recent discussions about this matter have taken place at Cabinet level.

Pancreatic Cancer

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has a target for increasing the early stage diagnosis rate for pancreatic cancer in the lifetime of this Parliament.

Steve Brine: The NHS Long Term Plan sets an ambition for three out of four cancers to be diagnosed at an early stage by 2028, compared to around one in two currently. This ambition applies to all cancers, including pancreatic cancer, not just the 10 currently in the Public Health Outcomes Framework early diagnosis metric. NHS England is keen to work with the charities representing some of the cancers not currently included in this metric on how best to measure progress towards the ambition moving forwards.

NHS: Finance

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish correspondence with (a) NHS England and (b) NHS Improvement on any (i) assessment and (b) analysis that indicates a funding shortfall of more than £1 billion in 2019-20.

Stephen Hammond: We have had no correspondence with NHS England or NHS Improvement regarding the Nuffield Trust’s analysis, dated 26 October 2018. We do not agree there is a shortfall in 2019-20, and the aforementioned analysis concludes that once recurrent efficiencies are factored in, there is financial headroom within the National Health Service long term settlement.

Members: Correspondence

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for North Norfolk of 26 July 2018 in relation to Dr Chris Day.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston of 17 December 2018, in relation to Dr Chris Day.

Caroline Dinenage: The Department has received both letters regarding Dr Chris Day from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston dated 26 July 2018 and 17 December 2018. Officials are carefully considering their contents and preparing responses and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be responding to the hon. Members’ letters shortly.

Epilepsy: Drugs

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of essential epilepsy medicines imported from the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: We understand that epilepsy medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans aim to ensure that the supply of epilepsy medicines and other essential medicines to patients is not disrupted in all European Union exit scenarios, including a ‘no deal’ exit. That is why on 23 August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription only medicines and pharmacy medicines to the United Kingdom that come from, or via, the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019. We followed that up on 7 December 2018 when the Department wrote to pharmaceutical companies that supply licensed medicines to the UK from or via the EU/EEA, and/or manufacture medicines in the UK, informing them of the updated reasonable worst-case scenario border planning assumptions and asking them about their current transportation routes and their ability to re-route their supply chains if they currently rely on Dover and/or Folkestone. In response to those communications we have received very good engagement from industry, including companies supplying epilepsy medicines to the UK, who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit.

Epilepsy: Drugs

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to exclude epilepsy medications from the Serious Shortage Protocol for medicines; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: Any serious shortage protocol would be developed with and signed off by clinicians. Only if clinicians deem it appropriate, an alternative quantity, strength, pharmaceutical form or medicine can be dispensed in line with the protocol. Each protocol would clearly set out what action can be taken by the retail pharmacy, under what circumstances, for which patients and during which period. Protocols for therapeutic or generic equivalents will not be suitable for all medicines and patients. For example, they would not be suitable for treatments where the medicines that are prescribed need to be prescribed by brand for clinical reasons, for example anti-epilepsy medicines. In these cases, patients would always be referred back to the prescriber for any decision about their treatment before any therapeutic or generic alternative is supplied.

Diabetes

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have put their Type 2 diabetes into remission and stopped taking medication for their condition in each of the last five years.

Steve Brine: The information requested is not centrally held.

Diabetes: Young People

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people under 21 years old have developed Type 2 diabetes in each of the last five years.

Steve Brine: The following table details the number of people who were diagnosed with type 2 or other diabetes when aged 20 years or under in England and Wales in each of the five calendar years 2013 to 2017: Calendar yearNumber of people201360520146902015770201690520171,030Source: National Diabetes Audit (NDA) Notes:- The NDA does not hold comprehensive data on children with diabetes;- Disclosure control has been applied to all figures, as per the NDA publication. All numbers are rounded to the nearest five, unless the number is one to seven, in which case it is rounded to five.

Artificial Sweeteners

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on health of sweeteners used in foods as an alternative to sugar.

Steve Brine: Sweeteners are used in a variety of everyday foods in the United Kingdom, including energy reduced and sugar free foods. But before they are permitted for use, all sweeteners must first undergo a thorough safety evaluation conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which includes assessing the likely impact on health. EFSA makes its assessment on the basis that all foods permitted to contain sweeteners have them at the maximum permitted level, this enables it to assess the highest possible levels of exposure and set the amount of a substance that can be consumed daily during a lifetime without any appreciable risk to health in the general population. Evidence considered as part of Public Health England’s report ‘Sugar reduction: The evidence for action’ found that replacing foods and drinks sweetened with sugar with those containing no or low-calorie sweeteners could be useful in helping people to manage weight as they reduce the calorie content of foods and drinks whilst maintaining a sweet taste. A copy of this report can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470179/Sugar_reduction_The_evidence_for_action.pdf

NHS Trusts: Crowdfunding

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of NHS Trusts with crowdfunding pages; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: This information is not held centrally.

Influenza: Vaccination

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the current uptake of winter 2018-19's influenza vaccination among those who are eligible for free treatment.

Steve Brine: Influenza vaccine coverage is closely monitored, with publication of weekly and monthly reports throughout the flu season. In addition, Public Health England publishes an annual report on gov.uk in the spring with finalised data on vaccine uptake. The following table shows the latest available data on the uptake of the influenza vaccine amongst eligible groups for 2018/19: Patient Group2018/19 (%)Patients aged 65 years or older69.9Patients aged six months to under 65 years in risk groups (excluding pregnant women without other risk factors)45.1Pregnant women (including those in risk groups)43.8Patients aged two years old (including those in risk groups)41.9Patients aged three years old (including those in risk groups)43.5 Notes:Weekly vaccine uptake data snapshot for week one (week ending 6 January 2019)Data is provisional and from a sample of 97.2% of all automated general practitioner (GP) practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel GP Flu survey. The data for the two and three year olds is from a sample of 97.4% of all automated GP practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel Childhood flu GPSource: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2018-to-2019-seasonSource: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2017-to-2018-season

NHS: Fire Prevention

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Weybridge fire incident report, published by NHS Property Services in May 2018, whether recommendations 4a. and 5a. have been implemented.

Stephen Hammond: NHS Property Services advised that in response to recommendation 4a, NHS Property Services should review their portfolio of properties to identify the construction type, with particular reference to timber frame buildings, NHS Property Services already holds a lot of information on the construction of its properties. There is however a programme underway to allow NHS Property Services to comprehensively document the construction types across the whole portfolio and manage the fire risks accordingly. NHS Property Services is working closely with the Department and NHS Improvement on these projects and on fire safety in general with other National Health Service partners. Recommendation 5a was that NHS Property Services should ensure learning from Weybridge Hospital is shared with the wider NHS and other stakeholders. In response to this recommendation and following the publication of the report, meetings were held with both NHS England and NHS Improvement to discuss the recommendations to ensure any wider lessons for the NHS could be shared. These discussions are ongoing as fire safety within NHS Property Services buildings continues to be a focus for the organisation.

Infant Foods: Sugar

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the average level of sugar content in baby food products available in the UK.

Steve Brine: Product ranges targeted at babies and young children are now part of the government’s reduction and reformulation programme. This work is being led by Public Health England who will consider the sugar content of baby food products in the United Kingdom as part of its review of the evidence for action. Publication of an approach is expected later in 2019.

Gambling: Rehabilitation

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinics for the treatment of problem gambling are planned to open between now and 2023; and where they are planned to be located.

Steve Brine: NHS England announced in the NHS Long Term Plan that it will invest in expanding National Health Service specialist clinics to help more people with serious gambling problems. This will build upon the two current clinics offering NHS treatment (a long-established clinic in London and newly launched Leeds clinic). Further details will be set out as part of a national implementation programme as mentioned in the Long Term Plan.

General Practitioners

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of potential increases in patient numbers at some GP practices as a result of practice closures due to rising rent and charges imposed by NHS Property Services.

Steve Brine: We are aware of only one practice where the general practitioner (GP) cited NHS Property Services charges among the reasons for handing back their contract. NHS Property Services worked with and supported the practice in reconciling the charges and these were then agreed and paid in full by the practice. When a GP practice does close, patients are informed of the closure and advised to register at other local practices of their choice within the catchment area in which they live. In some instances, and in consultation with patients and patient groups, patients are allocated to other neighbouring practices with adequate capacity. Commissioners locally will work with their practices to ensure they are only allocated a volume of patients which they have capacity to manage appropriately and effectively.

Dementia: Social Services

Thelma Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provisions have been included in the forthcoming green paper on social care reform to enable access to quality care for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Caroline Dinenage: The upcoming Green Paper will bring forward proposals to ensure we have a social care system where people including those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia know that the care they receive will be to a high standard and help them to maintain their independence and well-being.

Drugs: Imports

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of how medicines flown to the UK from Maastricht in preparation for the UK leaving the EU without a deal will reach distributors.

Stephen Hammond: On 23 August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription only medicines and pharmacy medicines to the United Kingdom that come from, or via, the European Union or European Economic Area (EEA) asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks’ additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019. We recognise, however, that certain medicines with short shelf lives, including medical radioisotopes, cannot be reasonably stockpiled. Where these medicines are imported from the EU or EEA, we have asked that suppliers prepare plans to air freight these medicines from the EU, that can be implemented in the event of a ‘no deal’ exit. Since then we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a ‘no deal’ exit. We recognise that information received from companies about medicines and supply chains is commercially sensitive; therefore, it is not appropriate to release this information publicly. We expect supply chains for air-freighted medicines from the EU/EEA to the UK to operate as they do now.

Food: Hygiene

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to extend the requirement for food vendors to prominently display food hygiene ratings on their premises to online third party food ordering (a) websites and (b) apps at the point at which the customer orders food.

Steve Brine: The Food Hygiene Rating scheme is operated by local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in partnership with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The scheme has a statutory basis in Wales and Northern Ireland. Food businesses covered by the scheme are given stickers showing their rating. Those in Wales and Northern Ireland are required by law to display the stickers at their premises and those in England are encouraged to do so. The FSA considers that mandatory display should extend to England and is currently finalising an evidence-based case for a statutory scheme. For businesses offering online ordering of food, legislation requiring provision of the rating at the point of choice is expected to be introduced in Northern Ireland once the Assembly is back in operation. In Wales, the FSA and Welsh Government are working to address an FSA recommendation to the National Assembly for Wales to explore the introduction of a similar requirement for businesses in Wales that use online food ordering platforms. Proposals will be presented to Welsh Ministers in due course. The FSA considers that provision of ratings online would be a key element of a statutory scheme for England.

NHS: Finance

Rehman Chishti: What steps he is taking to secure the long-term future of the NHS.

Matt Hancock: The National Health Service published its Long Term Plan last week, backed by £20.5 billion a year of taxpayers money, ensuring patients will be supported with world-class care at every stage of their life.

Department for International Development

Pacific: Climate Change

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether anti-corruption measures are being embedded into UK-funded climate resilience programmes in the Pacific Region.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK supports climate resilience programmes in the Pacific Region through the multilateral system. This comprises the Multilateral Development Banks (World Bank and Asia Development Bank), United Nations (UN) Agencies (UN Environment Programme and UN Development Programme) and Multilateral Funds (Climate Investment Funds, Green Climate Fund and Global Environment Facility). The UK Aid Strategy sets out our zero tolerance toward corruption. In line with this strategy we expect each multilateral institution to demonstrate that it also applies a zero tolerance approach toward corruption in its projects and minimises risks of corruption through rigorous project risk assessments and monitoring throughout implementation and delivery.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Ebola

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to tackle the further outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo which took place in December 2018.

Harriett Baldwin: UK aid has been playing a crucial role since the outbreak was first announced on 1 August. We quickly provided funding and expertise to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for response activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and for regional preparedness. Our efforts are building on previous UK investments in preparedness and health systems; the experimental vaccine used in DRC was developed with UK support after the West Africa outbreak in 2014-15.

Developing Countries: Nutrition

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what opportunities will be made for civil society organisations for young people to contribute to discussions on the nutrition for growth summit in 2020.

Alistair Burt: The Government of Japan, as hosts of the 2020 Summit, have stated that they see the Summit providing opportunities for civil society organisations. They are also open to promoting the active involvement of young people throughout. The Government of Japan is also already in dialogue with civil society on preparations for the Summit. The UK, which is working closely with the Government of Japan on Summit preparations, has encouraged and facilitated this dialogue and will continue to do so.

Developing Countries: Malnutrition

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in (a) the G20 and (b) the G7 on addressing malnutrition since the publication of the 2018 Global Nutrition Report.

Alistair Burt: There has not been an opportunity for the Secretary of State to meet G7 or G20 counterparts collectively since the launch of the Global Nutrition Report on 29 November 2018. The Government will continue to press at G7 and G20 meetings for greater priority to be given to malnutrition in all its forms, as the Report recommends. Following the G20 Summit on 30 November and 1 December, the Leaders statement reaffirmed the G20’s commitment in this regard. The Government also continues to raise nutrition with G7 and G20 partners bilaterally. For example, the UK Japan Joint Statement issued on the occasion of Prime Minister Abe’s visit on 10 January 2019 committed the UK and Japan to work together toward the success of the Global Nutrition Summit in Tokyo in 2020.

Nigeria: Internally Displaced People

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support internally displaced peoples in northern Nigeria.

Harriett Baldwin: Supporting the 1.8 million people who are internally displaced by conflict in north east Nigeria is a priority for my department. The UK is the largest donor to the World Food Programme’s Emergency Operation in Nigeria, which provided food and cash assistance 1.3 million displaced people and host communities in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance in 2018. We have also helped over 80,000 very vulnerable people access appropriate assistance to protection services, including rape survivors, victims of trauma, and over 4,000 children who have been separated from their families. We are supporting over 100,000 children to access quality education in conflict affected areas, where over 1,000 schools have been destroyed.

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to allocate additional funding at the 6th replenishment of the Global Fund in October 2019.

Penny Mordaunt: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is critical to the delivery of the UK’s objectives on the three diseases, and has helped to save 27 million lives since 2002. The UK is fully committed to a successful Sixth Replenishment and we look forward to reviewing the full investment case before making a decision about our next programme of support.

Developing Countries: Health Services

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Government's response to the Fifth Report of the International Development Committee, HC246 of Session 2014-15 and the Answer of 11 December 2018 to Question 198914 on Developing Countries: Health Services, in which month his Department plans to publish its health systems strengthening position paper.

Penny Mordaunt: We cannot say at the present time in which month the health systems strengthening position paper will be published. We are committed to publishing the position paper in 2019.

Yemen: Humanitarian Aid

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has plans to send officials to Yemen to make an assessment of the humanitarian situation in that country.

Penny Mordaunt: The UK government advises against all travel to Yemen due to the serious risk to security. We keep the situation on the ground under careful review and will re-establish visits to Yemen when the security situation permits us to do so. Although DFID staff cannot currently visit Yemen, we are in regular communication with programme partners, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and others to ensure we have a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation in Yemen.

Department for Education

Pre-school Education: Finance

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have held with (a) local authority leaders, (b) staff and (c) parents on the future funding of maintained nursery schools in (i) Salford and (ii) England; and if he will make a statement.

Nadhim Zahawi: Since my appointment, I have held the following meetings and visits involving local authority leaders, staff and parents regarding maintained nursery schools (MNS) and local authority maintained nurseries. The City Mayor of Salford, nursery representatives and parents. The Mayor of Greater Manchester. Headteacher of Castle Vale Nursery School & Children’s Centre, Birmingham. Headteacher and staff at Lanterns Nursery school, Winchester. Headteacher and staff at Hindley Nursery School, Wigan. Headteacher and staff at Rothesay Nursery School, Luton. The All Party Parliamentary Group for Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes.   My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has visited and met with staff at Rothesay Nursery School in Luton and Martenscroft Nursery school in Manchester. My right hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards held a roundtable with a group of headteachers to discuss school funding, which was attended by the headteacher of Castle Vale Nursery School. We recognise that MNS are an important part of the early years sector and make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. We are providing around £60 million a year to local authorities to enable them to maintain funding levels until at least 2020 and have commissioned new research that will help us establish an evidence-base to inform long-term policy for maintained nursery schools.

Pre-School Education: Standards

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children in (a) Nottinghamshire and (b) England who are (i) eligible and (ii) not eligible for free school meals achieved school readiness standards at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage in 2018.

Nadhim Zahawi: The requested data is shown in the attached table.



Achievement_in_early_years_foundation_stage
(PDF Document, 12.4 KB)

Secondary Education: Finance

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment he has made of the ratio of funding rates for (a) all secondary education and (b) upper secondary education in (i) the UK, (ii) France (iii) Germany and (iv) the US.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 11 January 2019



The Department uses internationally comparable data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess how our funding compares internationally. This includes figures published by the OECD on expenditure on educational institutions per full-time equivalent student, for upper secondary programmes and all secondary programmes. The UK has higher total government expenditure on primary and secondary educational institutions per student than all G7 countries bar the US. The expenditure is above the OECD average.The data on expenditure by phase of education, including a breakdown for upper secondary programmes and all secondary programmes, is available in Table C1.1 of the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2018 publication at the following link: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/total-expenditure-on-educational-institutions-per-full-time-equivalent-student-2015_eag-2018-table133-en.

Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average per pupil funding rate was for (a) GCSE students and (b) A-level students in each year since 2010.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 11 January 2019



The core schools budget has been protected in real terms since 2010 and is set to rise from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to over £43.5 billion in 2019/20 with increasing pupil numbers.The introduction of the national funding formula for schools (NFF) in 2018/19 means that, for the first time, school funding will be distributed to local authorities based on the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country. This is directing resources where they are needed most, providing transparency and predictability for schools, and addressing historic disparities between areas. For example, Coventry received £510 more per pupil than Plymouth despite having equal proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals and Nottingham similarly attracted £555 more than Halton. These disparities had persisted for nearly a decade, with little or no justification.Under the NFF, the basic per pupil funding amount for Key Stage 4 pupils is £4,386. Pupils may also attract additional funding through other NFF factors or through other funding streams, such as the pupil premium. Pupils in areas which face higher labour costs will also have the per pupil amount they attract increased by the relevant area cost adjustment, in recognition of those costs.To provide stability for schools, local authorities continue to be responsible for designing the distribution of funding in their areas. Because of this, local authorities can continue to set their own base funding rates for Key Stage 4 pupils, which can vary from the figure above.Before 2018-19, the Department did not distinguish between key stages when allocating funding to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant. Each local authority will have set their own funding rates for Key Stage 4 pupils for each year in this period.Students who take A levels typically do so as part of 16 to 19 study programmes. The Department does not separately identify the per student funding rate for students taking A levels rather than other qualifications in their study programmes. The base rate of funding for 16 to 19 study programmes is £4,000 per year for full-time 16 and 17-year-old students. Additional funding is provided on top of this through the 16-19 funding formula, to cover, for example, the needs of disadvantaged students, and to provide extra funding support for high attaining students who study four or five A levels. The £4,000 rate has been in place since the current formula was introduced in 2013.

Curriculum

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Times Educational Supplement article of 9 January 2018 entitled Heads fear Ofsted will penalise three-year GCSEs, whether his Department has recently issued guidance to Ofsted on the duration of Key Stages 3 and 4.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 14 January 2019



No specific guidance has been issued on this matter. The National Curriculum requirements for the length of all key stages is set out in the Education Act 2002, and the current National Curriculum framework and programmes of study were published in September 2013. Although academies are not required to teach the National Curriculum, they are expected to offer all pupils a curriculum that is similar in breadth and ambition, including the requirements to teach English, mathematics, science and religious education. The Department has concerns about the narrowing of the curriculum in some schools that teach Key Stage 3 for only two years. This was expressed to the Education Select Committee in May 2018, and the more recent Ofsted research on this matter has confirmed that this is an issue in some schools. In addition, as part of the Department’s announcement of a new model music curriculum on 11 January 2019, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has stated that he wants children to be taught a broad and balanced curriculum up to age 14, taking them to the point where they will consider which subjects to focus on at GCSE. The Department will be working to develop high quality complete curriculum programmes across other subjects, including history and geography, to support teachers to provide a broad and ambitious curriculum across primary and secondary schools, so that young people can fully enjoy these subjects up to age 14. The Department is working closely with Ofsted as it develops its new inspection framework to make sure no pupils see their education restricted. Ofsted will launch a public consultation on its inspection proposals on Wednesday 16 January.

Pupils: Mental Health

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support pupils who experience mental health problems at school.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 14 January 2019



Many schools provide support to pupils with mental health issues, but teachers are not mental health professionals and need specialist support.The Department is making available an additional £1.4 billion between 2015 and 2020 to improve mental health services for children and young people. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a continued focus on improving specialist services to build on this. It makes a commitment that expenditure on children and young people’s mental health services will grow faster than overall NHS spending and sets out plans to increase access to treatment.This provision will include new Mental Health Support Teams working in or near schools and colleges to provide earlier access to a wider range of support and treatments. The first of these teams will be set up this year in 25 trailblazer areas that will test how they can work in practice. The aim is to cover a fifth to a quarter of England by 2023.To support schools to engage with specialist support, the Government will fund the training of a designated senior lead in every school on how to put in place a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing.

Adult Education

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people that have completed an adult education course in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK in each year since 2010.

Anne Milton: The table below contains the number of achievements in further education and skills for adults (19 and over) in further education for Coventry, the West Midlands and England since 2010/11 academic year. This table also includes a further breakdown on the number of achievements in apprenticeships, which fall within further education.Adult (19+) number of achievements in further education since 2010/11 Number of achievements in further educationNumber of achievements of which in apprenticeshipsAcademic yearCoventryThe West MidlandsEnglandCoventryThe West MidlandsEngland2010/1115,190246,1502,265,10083013,310116,9002011/1215,490238,8702,258,5001,23020,930180,5002012/1317,490264,7402,453,9001,40023,060192,1002013/1416,410246,1302,265,0001,35024,190190,4002014/1514,390212,1601,983,2001,41023,370189,8002015/1611,800176,2601,694,5001,31025,010198,1002016/1710,790168,3101,578,9001,15024,560201,8002017/1811,070167,9601,574,0001,25025,610203,900Notes1) Figures for 2011/12 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years due to a change in data collection since the introduction of the Single Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data collection system.2) Academic year runs from August to July.3) This table contains further education data which includes Apprenticeships, Workplace Learning, Community Learning, and Education and Training provision (including the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service) taken at General Further Education Colleges (including Tertiary), Sixth Form Colleges, Special Colleges (Agricultural and Horticultural Colleges, and Art and Design Colleges), Specialist Colleges and External Institutions.4) Figures are based on learners that were funded through the government.5) England totals have been rounded to the nearest 100, other figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.6) The data source is the ILR.7) Region and local authority are based upon the home postcode of the learner. England total includes learners in England but with home postcodes unknown or outside England.8) This data is published in the further education data library:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-further-education-and-skills.

Teachers: Training

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the total cost to the public purse of teacher training bursaries awarded in each year since 2010.

Nick Gibb: The amount of teacher training bursary funding paid from academic year 2010/11 to 2016/17 was: Academic YearTraining Bursary funding 2010/11£149,453,0002011/12£51,096,0002012/13£138,512,5002013/14£136,418,0002014/15£144,897,0002015/16£172,997,0002016/17£199,747,000 Training bursary spend has varied according to the bursaries offered and the number of trainee teachers recruited. These figures do not include any reconciliation activity completed at the end of each academic year. The lower spend in academic year 2011/12 was due to bursaries being offered in fewer subjects. Figures for academic year 2017/18 spending will be available following completion of our assurance procedures.

Apprentices: Taxation

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his oral contribution of 17 December 2018, Official Report Column 509, if he will place in the Library a copy of the 30 November 2018 presentation by the Institute for Apprenticeships at Exeter College citing the projected £500 million overspend on the apprenticeship levy budget.

Anne Milton: The Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) is a non-departmental public body, independent of government. The IfA are considering whether it would be appropriate to publish the presentation given at Exeter College on 30 November 2018.

Apprentices: Finance

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2018 to Question 202058 on apprentices: finance, by what means his Department controls expenditure in a demand-led apprenticeship programme; and what steps his Department is taking to prevent an overspend in each of the next three years.

Anne Milton: The departmental budget for spending on apprenticeships in England from 2015-16 to 2019-20 was set initially in the 2015 Spending Review, based on forecast demand and considering factors such as historical start levels.Funding bands set the maximum that government will contribute towards the training and assessment costs of an individual apprenticeship and are set to achieve high-quality delivery while securing value for money. The Institute for Apprenticeships makes regular recommendations on the pricing of standards, and in 2018 we introduced additional funding bands to ensure that all standards are funded at the appropriate level.We also set the amount of funding available for supporting non-levy payers, which is delivered through contracts with training providers: currently government pays 90% of training and assessment costs and 100% for the smallest employers who take on 16 to 18 year olds. We have awarded funding totalling more than £500 million to providers across the country between January 2018 and March 2019. This  includes more than £70 million growth funding.We constantly monitor levels of spend and forecast demand and consider the overall budget position, including as part of the wider departmental position.

Crime Prevention

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support schools in educating students about the dangers of knife crime.

Nick Gibb: In April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy. It set out action being taken to address serious violence, and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The strategy set out 61 commitments from Government, including new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen police capability, and working with young people to encourage them to take up positive activities rather than get involved in crime.Alongside the legislative measures in the Bill the Government is taking forward a number of other actions, including a national knife crime media campaign, “#knifefree”, to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and discourage young people from carrying knives. As part of this, the Home Office have created a “#knifefree” resource for teachers.The Department is also making Relationships Education compulsory in primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in secondary schools. These subjects will help young people understand safe, respectful and positive relationships and appropriate ways of resolving conflict, including that resorting to violence is never right. The Department is currently considering the responses to the recent consultation on the draft regulations and guidance for the new subjects, and expect to publish the response and lay regulations in Spring 2019.

Babies: Mental Health

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with educational psychologists on the effect of reception baseline assessments on infant mental health.

Nadhim Zahawi: The National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) are working with the department to develop and deliver the reception baseline assessment (RBA). NFER have been developing assessments for over 70 years, and all aspects of the RBA design are informed by an evidence base of early years research. As we move forward with the development and piloting of the assessment, the department will continue to work very closely with the sector to ensure we get the experience right for pupils.The department is confident that the assessment will not be stressful or upsetting for children. It will be teacher-mediated and carried out one-to-one with the child using age-appropriate resources that they can handle and manipulate, lasting around 20 minutes. It will be similar to the on-entry assessments that schools already carry out in the reception year.

School Exclusions Review

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Timpson school exclusions review is planned to report.

Nick Gibb: In March 2018, the Government launched an externally-led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review is exploring how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It is also considering the differences in exclusion rates across primary and secondary schools in England.The review has gathered substantial evidence, including over 900 submissions to the call for evidence. Edward Timpson has also chaired a series of roundtables and the review has met with over 100 organisations and individuals, including schools, local authorities, parents and children.The review will report in early 2019.

Adoption Leave: Self-employed

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of self-employed people being unable to take paid adoption leave on the level of adoption.

Nadhim Zahawi: The department has undertaken no assessment because policy on paid leave for self-employed people is a policy responsibility of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.Where adopters do not qualify for family related statutory pay because they are self-employed, local authorities may make a payment equivalent to Maternity Allowance. This is at the discretion of the local authority and is means-tested. The latest figures on adoptions were published in a statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ on 15 November 2018. The release is available on the department’s website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Complaints

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what complaints procedure is open to members of the public if they wish to complain that (a) his Department’s Data Protection Officer and (b) any staff of his Department is in breach of the Civil Service Code; how many complaints have been made in each of the last two years against staff of his Department for breaches of the Civil Service Code; when, how and by whom those staff have been investigated; and what outcomes of those investigations have been recorded.

Edward Argar: Members of the public who are dissatisfied with the service provided by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) headquarters or its staff (including the Data Protection Officer) and wish to complain are directed to the complaints procedure on MoJ’s Gov.uk website. MoJ’s Executive Agencies similarly each have a complaints procedure (on Gov.uk) and complaints by members of the public will be addressed by each business area in this way. Data is not held centrally on whether any complaints are related to breaches of the Civil Service Code.All civil servants are bound by the Civil Service Code which sets out the core values; integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. If staff feel that they or their colleagues have done or been asked to do something that contravenes these core values, or breaches the Code, they are encouraged to raise these by following the whistleblowing procedure.The Civil Service Commissioners provide an independent avenue of appeal for staff if they feel their concern has not been satisfactorily resolved internally, though their legal powers are limited to only investigating cases brought by Civil Servants.The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman provides an independent and impartial handling service for complaints of maladministration brought by members of the public that have not been resolved by the NHS in England and UK government departments. Information on MoJ complaints handling is included in the Ombudsman’s report for 2016/17 and 2017/18. This is also included in the MoJ Annual Report & Accounts 2017-18.

Court Orders: Compensation

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) highest, (b) lowest and (c) average value of Compensation Orders issues in the last five years by offence type in the (i) Magistrates' and (ii) Crown Courts.

Rory Stewart: The number of compensation orders issued and the amount ordered to pay, broken down by offence type and court type over the last decade is in the public domain. The information can be found in the Criminal Justice Statistics found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2017. The relevant data tools are: Magistrates Court data tool; and Crown Court data tool. In the relevant data tool (Magistrates’ or Crown), select the ‘offence group’ of interest and scroll down the table to the ‘Compensation – All’ row.For the average compensation, again select the ‘offence group’ of interest and scroll down the table to the ‘Average Compensation (£)’ row.Similarly, you can observe the number of lowest value compensation orders (£0-£25) and highest value orders (£1000 +) in the rows below in the table.

Convictions

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of (a) ten or more and (b) one hundred or more offences in each of the last five years.

Rory Stewart: Number of offenders1 convicted by number of previous convictions, England and Wales2, annually from year ending June 2014 Year ending JuneNumber of offenders with 10 or more previous convictionsNumber of offenders with 100 or more previous convictions2014101,320307201598,298345201694,125371201788,610375201882,860368Source: Ministry of Justice extract of the Police National ComputerNotes:1) Each individual offender is counted only once for each year but may be counted in multiple years.2) England and Wales includes all 43 police force areas plus the British Transport Police.

Sentencing

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number was of offences committed by a prolific offender before their first custodial sentence.

Rory Stewart: The average number of cautions and non-custodial convictions received by a prolific offender before their first immediate custodial sentence is five. The definition of a prolific offender can be found here : https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/681553/prolific-offenders-15-feb-2017.pdf )  The response to this PQ was published in paper which can be found at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756282/prolific-offenders-experimental-statistics.pdf.

Prisoners' Release

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners released on licence have been found in breach of their licence conditions and (a) recalled to custody and (b) not recalled to custody in each of the last five years.

Rory Stewart: (a) The number of recalls to custody following breach of licence in each of the last five years1: 201320142015201620171733017657214672155921914 1 The figures provided are for women and men recalled in each full year from 2013 to 2017 and may include offenders recalled more than once across multiple years or within years. The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The last full year available is 2017. Published statistics, including figures up to and including June 2018 are available here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly(b) We do not hold information centrally about the number of offenders in the community who may have breached their licence conditions and are not recalled to custody. To extract this data would require a review of each separate case file to track their progress on licence.Public protection is our priority and recall is used to ensure that offenders on licence who present a high risk of harm to the public or are at risk of re-offending are returned to custody as quickly as possible. Offenders on licence are subject to strict licence conditions, which are designed to enable the Probation Service to manage the risk that offenders may pose on release from prison and to safeguard public protection. All offenders on licensed supervision in the community are liable to recall to prison if they fail to comply with the conditions of their licence.

Court Orders: Compensation

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many compensation orders were issued for each offence type by (a) magistrate's courts and (b) crown courts  in each of the last five years.

Rory Stewart: The number of compensation orders issued and the amount ordered to pay, broken down by offence type and court type over the last decade is in the public domain. The information can be found in the Criminal Justice Statistics found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2017. The relevant data tools accessible through this link are: Magistrates Court data tool; and Crown Court data tool. In the relevant data tool (Magistrates’ or Crown), select the ‘offence group’ of interest and scroll down the table to the ‘Compensation – All’ row.

Prisons: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the hon. Member for South West Norfolk, 6 December 2016 on Prison Safety, Official Report, column 95, what assessment he has made of (a) the effect of the use of patrol dogs barking to deter drones, (b) how many prisons use this method and (c) at what cost to the public purse.

Rory Stewart: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) uses dogs in a variety of roles, such as searching for drugs and other illicit items and for patrolling. Patrol dogs are deployed in various ways including at the perimeter of prisons, to deter and disrupt individuals from illegal activity such as throwing contraband over the perimeter or piloting drones over the prison. In the course of these duties, patrol dogs may also hear drones being used and alert their handler. However, dogs are not deployed specifically for this purpose and therefore there are no associated costs. We are taking decisive steps to tackle the use of drones as a supply route for organised criminals to bring illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones into prisons. Prisons that experience high numbers of drone incursions are receiving a wide range of support, including prison-specific vulnerability assessments and joint policing operations to arrest drone operators. We are also using physical counter-measures, including netting and window grilles.

Child Rearing

John Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to receive the high conflict practice pathway from Cafcass designed to provide guidance to practitioners on cases of parental alienation.

Lucy Frazer: Cafcass launched its Child Impact Assessment Framework in October 2018. It is available at https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/grown-ups/professionals/ciaf/. The framework, which incorporates the award-winning Domestic Abuse Practice Pathway, brings together guides and tools which Cafcass officers can use to help them assess the impact on the child of different case factors in private law cases, including: domestic abuse; harmful conflict; child refusal or resistance to spend time with one of their parents, which includes parental alienation; and other forms of harmful parenting.

Child Rearing

John Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of data available to his Department on the prevalence of parental alienation.

Lucy Frazer: In October last year the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) launched its Child Impact Assessment Framework (CIAF) which sets out how children may experience parental separation and how this can be understood and acted on by Cafcass. Cafcass is planning to undertake a review of its case records featuring actual or alleged alienating behaviours so that it has a clearer evidence base on the prevalence of parental alienation and its relationships with other case factors. This study will commence once the CIAF has been fully embedded into practice.

Legal Aid Scheme: Social Security Benefits

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have been granted legal aid in welfare cases in each of the last 10 years.

Lucy Frazer: Information about the volumes of people granted legal aid in welfare benefits cases is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics. The latest figures (to September 2018) of Legal Help matter starts (from table 5.1) and Civil Representation granted certificates (from table 6.2) in welfare benefits cases are outlined in the below table. YearLegal Help Matter StartsCivil Representation Granted Certificates2008-09135,751512009-10141,625532010-11116,081232011-12102,920222012-1382,554162013-1416382014-1550562015-1625092016-17442102017-184439   The MoJ has spent several months conducting a wide-ranging review of the reforms to legal aid and engaged with more than 100 organisations and individuals as part of the evidence-gathering phase. Having finalised this engagement at the end of November, the review is now near completion and will be published shortly.

Offences Against Children: Sports

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to extend the provisions of Section 21 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to include Council funded sports coaches within the occupations classified as a position of trust.

Lucy Frazer: The Ministry of Justice has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Treasury

National Income

Tom Brake: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2018 to Written Question 199762 on National Income, if he will publish regional estimates of the change in gross value added of the UK (a) remaining a member of the EU, (b) leaving under the proposed EU withdrawal agreement, (c) leaving the EU and with a basic free trade agreement and (d) leaving the EU without a deal.

John Glen: The Government has published estimates of long-run changes to regional GVA in four scenarios – modelled White Paper, modelled EEA-type, modelled average FTA, and modelled no deal - compared to today’s arrangements. The analysis shows that all regions and nations of the UK will be better off in the modelled white paper scenario than in the modelled no-deal. The publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exiting-the-european-union-publications

Customs Declaration Services Programme

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to complete the roll-out of the Customs Declaration Service; and when the Customs Declaration Service will be available to all businesses.

Mel Stride: The Customs Declaration Service is being delivered through three releases of functionality. The first two releases were implemented between August and December 2018, providing the majority of the functionality necessary for imports. The third release, planned for later this year, will provide the functionality necessary for exports. Some businesses are already using the new Customs Declaration Service, and HMRC expects all businesses to migrate to the new service after the third release has been implemented. In the meantime, the existing CHIEF system will remain available for businesses to use.

Electronic Publishing: Vat Zero Rating

Thelma Walker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 196811, what assessment he has made against policy, economic and fiscal considerations of the possibility of extending the zero rate of VAT to digital publications.

Mel Stride: The Government keeps all taxes under review, including VAT on e-publications. Any amendments to the VAT regime as it applies to physical publications and e-publications must be carefully assessed against policy, economic and fiscal considerations.

Corporation Tax

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to lower corporation tax after the UK leaves the EU.

Mel Stride: The government is committed to ensuring the UK remains competitive and an attractive destination to set up and grow a business.Since 2010, the government has cut the rate of corporation tax from 28% to 19% today. The government has legislated to reduce the corporation tax rate further to 17% in April 2020. This delivers the government’s ambition to have the lowest overall rate in the G20.As with all aspects of the tax system, the government keeps the UK corporation tax rate under review. Any decisions on future policy would be considered as part of the Budget process, in the context of the wider public finances.The government also remains committed to commence the power for the Northern Ireland Assembly to set a Northern Ireland rate of corporation tax, as set out in the Stormont House Agreement, once a restored Northern Ireland Executive demonstrates its finances are on a sustainable footing.

Farmers: Northern Ireland

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions his Department has had with farmers in Northern Ireland on the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Elizabeth Truss: Treasury Ministers and officials have regular discussions with key stakeholders on matters of importance to the economy across the UK. Agriculture is an area of primarily devolved competence. After we leave the EU, each administration will be able to independently design policies that support agriculture and enhance the environment, working closely with farmers.

Income Tax: Tax Rates and Bands

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people were placed in the higher tax threshold in 2017-2018.

Mel Stride: The estimated number of taxpayers liable for tax at the higher rate are published in the HMRC National Statistics table 2.1, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/710887/Table_2.1.pdf These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) outturn data up to 2015-16. The 2017-18 estimates are based upon the 2015-16 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s March 2018 economic and fiscal outlook.

Tax Avoidance

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle people using overseas accounts to avoid paying tax.

Mel Stride: Since 2010 HMRC has protected and secured tax revenues of over £2.8 billion from those trying to hide money abroad. Furthermore, the UK has implemented the Common Reporting Standard - a ground-breaking agreement for 100 jurisdictions to automatically exchange financial account information, to tackle offshore tax evasion.

Brexit

Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total estimated expenditure is for all Departments for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Elizabeth Truss: HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:£412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.£286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf.Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/)

Immigration: Fraud

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the press release of Her Majesty's Treasury Press Release entitled Crackdown on financial crime made reference to the Written Statement of 6 December 2018 on Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules, HCWS1159.

John Glen: There is no recent HM Treasury press release entitled “Crackdown on financial crime”. The most recent HM Treasury press release relating to countering illicit finance was published on 7th December 2018, and was entitled “UK takes top spot in fight against dirty money”. This press release relates to the Mutual Evaluation Report (a once-a-decade assessment) of the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime. This assessment was conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard-setter for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, and contains key findings and follow-up recommendations for countries to consider. The UK has achieved the best ratings of any country assessed so far in this round of evaluations, outperforming significant players in this space (such as the US and other global financial centres). The report places the UK as the strongest overall regime of over 60 countries assessed to date.

Coinage: British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

Patrick Grady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's announcement entitled New pound coin goes global with rollout to British overseas nations, published on 6 January 2019, if he will list which authority in each of the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies that will be responsible for commissioning new £1 coins.

Robert Jenrick: We are committed to our Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies around the globe. Enabling them to design and mint their own versions of the iconic new £1 coin is a demonstration of that commitment.Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will now be able to apply to the Royal Mint for permission to produce their own 12-sided pound coins. It is for the coin issuing authority in each of the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to seek permission, if they wish to do so.

Import Duties

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the effect on the amount of customs revenue accruing to the public purse of (a) leaving the EU, (b) leaving the EU without a deal and (b) the Department for Transport’s decision to prioritise speed of goods processing over revenue collection at the border.

Mel Stride: The amount of customs revenue collected will be dependent on the rates of import duty set and our relationship with the EU. In the event of “no deal” the Government will publish new UK duty rates, in due course, before we leave the EU.

Child Benefit: Lone Parents

Thelma Walker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the high income child benefit tax charge on single-parent families.

Elizabeth Truss: The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support is targeted at those who need it most. It applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000, who claims Child Benefit or whose partner claims it, regardless of the make-up of their household. The impacts on individuals and households were published in the Tax Information and Impact Note at Budget 2012 when HICBC was announced:https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20141007023213/http:/www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/tiin-0620.pdf

VAT: Electronic Government

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2019 to Question 205403, what the total to date is of businesses signed up for making tax digital for VAT; and what estimate he has made of what that total represents as a proportion of eligible businesses.

Mel Stride: Further to my response on 9 January 2019 to PQ 205403, daily take-up during this pilot stage has now increased to over 100 businesses a day, in line with initial expectations. There are currently over 4,000 businesses in the pilot. This is enabling HMRC to test the service fully for all business types. HMRC informed stakeholder groups of the numbers participating in the pilot by email on 10 January. HMRC is also continuing to issue letters to all businesses in scope inviting them to join early, alongside a range of other communications activity. HMRC’s assessment is that progress with testing and take-up remains on track to mandate the service from April 2019, and support all businesses in scope to join the service in time for their first VAT return due after that date. HMRC continues to work with a wide range of business groups, agents and software providers to support business readiness for this change.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Parliamentary Questions

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many times his Department has transferred (a) a Written Parliamentary Question and (b) an Oral Parliamentary Question to a different Department since July 2017.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 11 January 2019



As of 11 January 2019, Departmental records indicate that since 1 July 2017 (a) 473 written parliamentary questions and (b) 8 Oral Parliamentary Questions, tabled to my Department by Members of both Houses, for which a different answering body was responsible, were transferred to the correct answering body.

Housing: Regeneration

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to he Answer of 9 January 2019 to Question 205256 on Housing: Regeneration, if he will create a fund for land clearance and the demolition of low quality, high void rate housing in circumstances whereby local authorities develop plans for housing regeneration.

Kit Malthouse: The current Estate Regeneration Fund is open to bids from local authorities that have partnered with a private organisation to deliver a regeneration project. The funding can be used for land clearance, demolition and rebuilding of homes. Low quality housing and high void rates can be prevalent in areas identified for regeneration and the funding that has been allocated will support places deliver better quality homes, improved public spaces and new housing where it is needed most.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Wales

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the funding allocated to Wales out of the UK Shared Prosperity fund will be as a result of a (a) pre-allocation or (b) competitive bidding process.

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether funding allocated from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be restricted to  specific funding streams and policy goals.

Jake Berry: The Government recognises the importance of providing clarity on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and we intend to publish the public consultation shortly. Final decisions on the quantum and allocation of the Fund will be decided during the Spending Review this year.In his Written Ministerial Statement of 24 July 2018 on Local Growth, HCWS927, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government was clear the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be a simplified, integrated fund that tackles inequalities between communities, by raising productivity. The Fund will be aligned to our modern Industrial Strategy.

Local Government Services: EU Nationals

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office to ensure that non-UK EU residents in the process of seeking settled status will be able to access local authority-provided services while they are waiting for conferment of that status.

Jake Berry: My Department continues to work closely with the Home Office to assist on the implementation of the EU Settlement Scheme which will give EU citizens already residing in the UK, and those arriving during the Implementation Period, the opportunity to secure their future residence in the UK and to carry out their lives broadly as now Once the UK has left the EU, the Government will put in place a new single, skills-based immigration system, which will apply to citizens from both EU and non-EU countries. Current entitlements of EU citizens will remain unchanged until the future border and immigration system is introduced.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason the consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has been postponed; and if he will make a statement.

Jake Berry: The Government recognises the importance of reassuring local areas and providing clarity on the future of local growth funding once we have left the European Union. Over the past year we have held 22 engagement events across the UK, with representatives from a breadth of sectors, in order to aid the policy development of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. To build on these conversations, we intend to publish the full consultation document shortly.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2018 to Question 170708 and the Written Statement of 24 July 2018 on Local Growth, HLWS898, if he will publish the proposed timeline for the consultation on the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Jake Berry: We intend to publish the public consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund shortly. Over the past year the Government has conducted a series of engagement events across the UK, which have provided a crucial opportunity for interested parties to provide their views on the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence: Industrial Health and Safety

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many notices of contravention were issued to his Department by the Health and Safety Executive in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014, (d) 2015, (e) 2016 and (f) 2017.

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many notices of contravention issued to his Department by the Health and Safety Executive included contraventions of health and safety law in relation to the prevention of heat illness in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014, (d) 2015, (e) 2016 and (f) 2017.

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many notices of contravention issued to his Department by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have resulted in follow-up action being taken by the HSE in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014, (d) 2015, (e) 2016 and (f) 2017.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: Holding answer received on 14 January 2019



The number of notices of contravention which have been issued to the Ministry of Defence by the Health and Safety Executive relating to Heat Injury, and which have been centrally reported are: 2012 201312014 2015 2016 20171 The remainder of the information requested could not be collated in the time available. I will write to the hon. Member with details as soon as possible.

Ministry of Defence: Industrial Health and Safety

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many notices of contravention issued to his Department by the Health and Safety Executive were in relation to incidents involving Special Forces in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014, (d) 2015, (e) 2016 and (f) 2017.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: Holding answer received on 14 January 2019



It is long standing policy of this Government and of previous Governments, not to comment on UK special forces.

Armed Forces: Death

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Service Inquires conducted after a death during a (a) training exercise and (b) selection event included heat illness as a factor in (i) 2012, (ii) 2013, (iii) 2014, (iv) 2015, (v) 2016 and (vi) 2017.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: Holding answer received on 14 January 2019



Between 2012-2017 only one Service Inquiry was conducted, in 2015, where heat illness was specifically found to be a causal or contributory factor following a military exercise.

European Fighter Aircraft: Safety Measures

Douglas Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the tAIRPROX report No. 2018061, whether the Typhoon Enhanced Collision Awareness System will provide situation awareness of all aircraft that may be in the vicinity.

Stuart Andrew: The Typhoon Enhanced Collision Awareness System (ECAS) will exploit all aircraft sensors, including the aircraft radar, to provide the best possible situational awareness of aircraft that may be in the vicinity. In the case of AIRPROX report No. 2018061, the existing Typhoon aircraft radar indicated the presence of traffic and one of the Hawks was visually identified by the crew. Consequently, the overall risk of collision was assessed to be low. However, it is assessed that ECAS would have provided the crew with additional situational awareness of the Hawks in the vicinity of the two Typhoons.

European Fighter Aircraft: Safety Measures

Douglas Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2018 to Question 189831 on European Aircraft: safety measures, what the timeframe is for the Typhoon aircraft to be compliant with Part 13 sub paragraph 1.1.9.1 of MAA/Def Stan 00-970 (Aircraft Collision Avoidance System).

Stuart Andrew: The Typhoon Enhanced Collision Awareness System (ECAS) will enter service with the United Kingdom's Typhoon fleet later this year. Typhoon ECAS is a collision awareness system. As such, it is not required to comply with Def Stan 00-970 Part 13 sub paragraph 1.1.9.1 and there are no current plans for it to do so.

HMS Vengeance and HMS Vigilant: Repairs and Maintenance

Emma Dent Coad: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the need to refuel (a) HMS Vigilant and (b) HMS Vengeance in their remaining years of service.

Stuart Andrew: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my predecessor (Guto Bebb) on 26 January 2018 to Question 123641 to the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury).



123641 - Warships
(Word Document, 26.96 KB)

War Pensions: Applications

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many outstanding cases his Department is currently dealing with on disputes over applications for war pensions.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: As at 11 November 2019 there were 588 War Pension appeals in progress, of which 212 are waiting for a tribunal hearing date. Tribunal hearing dates are not set by the Ministry of Defence.War Pensions Scheme statistics are published annually on the GOV.UK website at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/war-pension-recipients-index

Department for Work and Pensions

Children: Maintenance

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average deduction of wages was for (a) one child, (b) two children and (c) three children by (i) the Child Support Agency and (ii) the Child Maintenance Service in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Justin Tomlinson: The following table provides the average quarterly amounts paid through a deduction from earning order/request for each available quarter in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Figures are up to the quarter ending September 2018. This is consistent with the latest Official Statistics on the Child Maintenance Service and the Child Support Agency (CSA). Data relating to the Child Maintenance Service is not readily available before July 2017. For the Child Support Agency, in the quarter ending September 2018, there were no liabilities for cases with 3 or more children.Average quarterly amount deducted   - Child Support Agency Child Maintenance ServiceNumber of Children 123 or more 123 or moreQuarter endingMar-16 £523£735£792Jun-16 £532£745£804Sep-16 £539£750£814Dec-16 £529£733£799Mar-17 £517£716£783Jun-17 £514£710£774Sep-17 £520£724£893 £567£686£778Dec-17 £537£749£920 £559£691£791Mar-18 £539£745£948 £575£706£786Jun-181 £475£585£1,063 £591£725£815Sep-181 £455£1,187- £600£738£840   Figures are rounded to the nearest £. Figures for three or more children are presented together as the rate at which a non-resident/paying parent is liable to pay does not change after three children. The caseload on CSA is falling at a faster rate as we are approaching the end of the Case Closure programme. We have now ended liabilities on the majority of CSA cases and will be taking steps to conclude the remaining cases before the end of 2018. Figures for CSA in June 2018 and September 2018 are based on less than 200 cases. The small number of cases in this period helps to explain the greater variation in average amounts in these quarters.

Universal Credit

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the number of people making universal credit applications without using a computer.

Alok Sharma: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to Question 206260 on 11 January 2018.

State Retirement Pensions

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of paying state pensions on a fixed date in every month rather than a four weekly cycle.

Guy Opperman: The position on the payment of the State Pension has not changed under this Government, the coalition or its predecessors. We receive very few representations on fixed date payments of the State Pension. While we understand it may be preferred by some, and we do keep the method of payment under review, there are no plans to change the current payment periods.

Universal Credit: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures her Department has put in place to ensure that disabled individuals do not lose their severe disability premium when they are moved onto universal credit.

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of individuals who have lost their severe disability premium when moved onto universal credit.

Sarah Newton: Our draft Regulations will ensure that eligible claimants in receipt of Severe Disability Premium are only moved to Universal Credit as part of a managed migration process, and through that process will see their payments protected. We are spending over £3 billion on Transitional Protections for 1.1 million households, to ensure that no one loses out at the point of transition. We have also made provision for those eligible claimants who have already naturally migrated to Universal Credit to be considered for Severe Disability Premium transitional payments. These will be made as on-going monthly payments and an additional lump-sum to cover the period since they moved to Universal Credit. Published data shows that of the 42,000 people who were on ESA and started a claim on Universal Credit (Full Service) within one month of closing their ESA claim between May 2015 and February 2018, 4,000 were in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has made an assessment of the change in the relative value of overseas UK pensioners' state pensions for each percentage fall in the value of the pound.

Guy Opperman: No such assessment has been made. The exchange rate is subject to fluctuation. As a result state pension payments will change depending on the rate for foreign currency.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Sandy Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of fairness of the decision by the Independent Case Examiner to close individual cases related to the state pension age for women on the basis that there is a judicial review of the way in which her Department handled those changes.

Guy Opperman: When a department and independent bodies face a legal case, they have to review whether they continue to assess claims or await determination of the legal case. This has been the policy under all governments, Labour, Coalition, and Conservative, for decades. The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) closed all live cases which concerned complaints about the state pension age for women (WASPI) when they became subject to legal proceedings, as is required under its governance contract. In the event the legal proceedings fall away or there is no determination on the matters which form the basis of the WASPI complaints, the ICE could consider reopening the cases at the request of the Department.

Universal Credit: Support for Mortgage Interest

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 9 January 2019 to Question 205254 on Universal Credit: Support for Mortgage Interest, if she will ensure the rules in relation to support for mortgage interest loans mean that the 39 week waiting period is not reset when a claimant receives any income.

Justin Tomlinson: We operate a zero earnings rule for Universal Credit in Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI). Receiving any earned income during the wait period or during receipt of SMI loan payments will mean that the claimant will not receive loan payments. The zero earnings rule requires claimants to satisfy a waiting period of nine consecutive Universal Credit assessment periods with no earned income before the claimants can receive loan payments. In addition to this we also work closely with UK Finance and Lenders to impress upon them importance of forbearance in the wait periods for SMI support.

Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on ensuring that EU citizens in the process of seeking settled status in the UK will continue to be able to access social security benefits while awaiting the outcome of their application.

Alok Sharma: The UK Government has reached an agreement with the EU guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. The Government has already made public its plans for protecting the rights of EU citizens. This will be done through the EU settlement scheme, published on 21 June 2018 and available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/718237/EU_Settlement_Scheme_SOI_June_2018.pdf

Universal Credit: Telephone Services

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2018 to Question 185101 on Universal Credit: Telephone Services, if she will publish the (a) supportive lines and (b) agent led processes used by universal credit call centre staff, in addition to the Digital Channel Product.

Alok Sharma: Universal Credit is tailored to the individual needs of the claimant and the Department has chosen not to develop scripts or supportive lines for call handlers over and above the Digital Channel product. Agent Led Processes (ALP’s) are low level business processes, designed to work as part of the Universal Credit service. They are embedded into the service and do not stand alone as separate guidance or instructions to staff. It is therefore not possible to split them out into individual processes for sharing purposes. Call handlers have access to comprehensive Universal Credit guidance. Universal Credit guidance is published in the House of Commons Library and the Department is committed to refreshing this at regular intervals.

Universal Credit: Telephone Services

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training is provides to call-handlers on the universal credit helpline (a) when they start and (b) throughout their working time.

Danielle Rowley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library a copy of the training documents used for training call handlers on the universal credit helpline.

Alok Sharma: For new entrants, the learning journey for Universal Credit Helpline call handlers is broadly made up of ‘soft skills’ customer service learning, which covers how to gather information through active listening, equality and diversity training and bespoke IT system-based technical learning, all of which is supported by consolidation activity. Colleagues, alongside experienced case managers receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to Universal Credit guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals. The majority of the low level business processes for learning are embedded into the service and do not stand alone as separate guidance or instructions to staff. However, call handlers have access to comprehensive Universal Credit guidance, which is published in the House of Commons Library and which the Department is committed to refreshing at regular intervals.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Pets: Imports

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Dogs Trust’s recommendations in their report: Puppy Smuggling: When will this cruel trade end?, what plans his Department has to create a centrally accessible database logging pet’s microchip numbers and date of entry into the UK.

David Rutley: I have zero tolerance of the abhorrent crime that is puppy smuggling, where unscrupulous dealers are abusing the EU Pet Travel Scheme to illegally traffic puppies into the United Kingdom, with no regard for the welfare of these animals or the biosecurity of the UK. Defra are pursuing a holistic approach to tackling puppy smuggling, which includes working closely with Dogs Trust to tackle the issue. Defra Ministers met senior staff from the charity in November, to discuss the findings of their latest report.   It is already a requirement for every dog in the UK to be identified by a microchip and its details to be recorded on a recognised database. This includes dogs imported from outside the UK. Furthermore, all pets entering the UK have their microchip scanned and recorded by the carrier at the time of travel. We do not consider it necessary at this time to introduce an additional database along the lines proposed.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many non-disclosure agreements her Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

David Rutley: The Government has non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with some private sector organisations. Confidentiality requirements are a common element of contractual obligations and are used by departments to protect commercial considerations; to reflect the sensitive nature of some discussions; and to facilitate conversations that otherwise may not have been able to take place, due to concerns around sensitive information. The requested information on the number of NDAs is not held centrally by Defra and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Vaccination

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to expand the badger vaccination programme.

George Eustice: Landowners and private groups across England can apply to Natural England for a licence to vaccinate badgers against TB. Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) provides training for those who wish undertake such vaccination and Defra provides financial support for projects within the Edge Area under the Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme (BEVS).BEVS, relaunched in 2018 following a global vaccine shortage, provides matched funding and training for groups that want to take part. Three groups were successful with their applications in 2018. On 13 September 2018 we re-opened the scheme and asked for expressions of interest from those wishing to apply to vaccinate from 2019. The application process closes on 25 January 2019.A long-standing research programme at APHA to identify an oral vaccine and a palatable bait in which to deliver it is also ongoing. An efficacy study is currently in progress, with results due later this year.We are currently considering the report of the TB Strategy review, conducted by a team led by Professor Sir Charles Godfray, the scope of which includes badger vaccination. A Government response to the review will be published later this year.

Tree Planting

Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees have been planted in each (a) region, (b) local authority area and (c) parliamentary constituency since April 2010.

David Rutley: Forestry Commission statistics published as part of their Corporate Performance Indicators on 13 November 2018 indicate that at the end of September 2018 at least 15.2 million trees have been planted since April 2010 with government support, equivalent to approximately 12,900 hectares of woodland. Annual figures are provided in the same report. A separate report has been produced by the Forestry Commission using the best available information New Planting of Trees Supported by the Rural Development Programme for England, and other forms of Government Support; April 2010 to September 2018. This gives a breakdown of government supported planting by region, local authority area and parliamentary constituency. A draft copy of this report, which is subject to further review, has been placed in the library. The Forestry Commission is planning to publish the final version of the report with the next release of their Corporate Performance Indicators in February 2019.

Birds: Malvern Hills

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2018 to Question 191481 on Birds: Malvern Hills, which bird groups Natural England has met with; and when Natural England propose to next meet with those bird groups.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Natural England attends the annual Wildlife Panel for the Malvern Hills where it is presented with a summary bird report for the area for the year. The last panel was held in March 2018 and Natural England will attend the next meeting in March this year. In the meantime Natural England continues to liaise with members of the group.

Tyres: Snow and Ice

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of winter tyres on roads on air quality.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Defra has not made an assessment of the effect of the use of winter tyres on roads on air quality.   In 2018, Defra carried out a joint call for evidence with the Department for Transport on particulate emissions from brakes, tyres and road. We are now considering the evidence submitted.

Ramsgate Port: Dredging

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Natural England has made a Habitat Regulation Assessment prior to the dredging of the Port of Ramsgate.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: In 2010/2011, Natural England (NE) worked with Ramsgate Harbour on environmental assessment and monitoring of their water injection dredging activities, including a Habitats Regulations Assessment of the activity undertaken at that time. After noting reports that dredging was taking place in order to prepare the port for expansion via water injection, NE have contacted the port directly to clarify what dredging is being undertaken, including volumes and locations. NE have also been in touch with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to clarify under which powers the port are undertaking this activity and whether an MMO licence would be required.

Horses: Animal Welfare

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the practice of horse tethering.

David Rutley: Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act), it is an offence to fail to provide for an animal’s welfare or to cause it any unnecessary suffering. The 2006 Act is backed up by the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids (the Code). The Code provides owners and keepers with information on how to meet the welfare needs of their horses and includes a specific section on how to tether a horse. Local authorities have powers under the 2006 Act to investigate allegations of cruelty or poor welfare. In addition, welfare organisations such as the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare (WHW) may also investigate such matters. If anyone is concerned about the way a horse has been tethered, they should report the matter either to the relevant local authority, or to the RSPCA or WHW who can investigate. If a horse is found not to be tethered appropriately, this could lead to a prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. I consider that existing legislation and guidance in place in respect of tethering horses ensures their welfare needs are met appropriately.

Home Office

UK Border Force: Staff

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK Border Force staff were employed at each UK (a) port and (b) airport in (i) 2012 and (ii) May 2018.

Caroline Nokes: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale on the 7th February 2017, UIN 60627 for staffing from 2012 to 2015. The latest published staffing figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2016 - 17.Refer to link below: FY2016/17 – Page 66 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2016-to-2017Data for staffing levels in 2017/18 will be available when the Annual Report for 2017 – 18 is published

Offences against Children: Internet

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his speech entiled Keeping our children safe, published on gov.uk on 3 September 2018, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the technology and social media industry’s response to that speech.

Victoria Atkins: On 7-8 November the Home Secretary co-hosted a Hackathon with Microsoft, at which leading companies worked to develop a prototype tool to detect online grooming to be provided licence-free to small and medium companies worldwide. The Home Secretary also visited US-based social networks and other technology companies to urge them to promote the use of the new prototype and to encourage further action to tackle sexual abuse of children online.Some progress has already been made, including the adoption of tools to identify new child abuse imagery, publication of new transparency data capturing action on CSEA. However, the sharing of child abuse imagery, online grooming and livestreaming of abuse remain prevalent and there is more to be done. We will set out plans for tackling online harms, including Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper. The White Paper will set out clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.

Offences against Children: Internet

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with technology and social medias companies on the use of the prototypes for detecting grooming that were developed at the Microsoft Hackathon.

Victoria Atkins: On 7-8 November the Home Secretary co-hosted a Hackathon with Microsoft, at which leading companies worked to develop a prototype tool to detect online grooming to be provided licence-free to small and medium companies worldwide. The Home Secretary also visited US-based social networks and other technology companies to urge them to promote the use of the new prototype and to encourage further action to tackle sexual abuse of children online.Some progress has already been made, including the adoption of tools to identify new child abuse imagery, publication of new transparency data capturing action on CSEA. However, the sharing of child abuse imagery, online grooming and livestreaming of abuse remain prevalent and there is more to be done. We will set out plans for tackling online harms, including Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper. The White Paper will set out clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September to Question 172565 on Immigration: EU Nationals, when he plans to publish an assessment of the effectiveness of the pilot scheme.

Caroline Nokes: A report setting out the findings of the first private beta test phase of the EU Settlement Scheme was published on 31 October 2018. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-private-beta-1A report of our findings from the second private beta test phase will be published shortly and made available on Gov.uk.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2018 to Question 172611 on Immigration: EU Nationals, if he will hold discussions with banks on (a) the decision to allow applicants to the EU settlement scheme to submit as documentary evidence of five years of continuous residence an annual bank statement or an account summary covering a 12-month period and (b) that information being provided free of charge.

Caroline Nokes: It is expected that the majority of applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme will be able to prove their UK residence using the automated cross-Government checks with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions. Those wishing to provide bank statements as evidence of UK residence may be able to do so free of charge by using their bank’s self-service online facilities and submitting them digitally with their application.There are no plans to discuss this specific issue with banks but the banking industry is represented by UK Finance at one of the Home Office’s monthly stakeholder groups at which all elements of the EU Settlement Scheme’s design are discussed.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) public and (b) private sector organisations will be able to access the personal information of applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office is the data controller for all data processed within the EU Settlement Scheme, this includes where organisations are contracted to act on behalf of the Home Office as the Home Office. No other organisations have access to the personal information of applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme. The Home Office may however share information with other organisations, but only where the information needs to be shared and there is an appropriate legal basis for doing so. Further detail on this is set out in the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship System privacy information notice:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-information-use-in-borders-immigration-and-citizenship.

Visas: Applications

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department decided the service point locations of its contractor Sopra Steria; and what consideration was given to accessibility for users of those services when deciding those locations.

Caroline Nokes: The geography of UKVCAS service points is not fixed but rather designed to evolve with demand through the contract term. Sopra Steria undertook extensive market research to identify it’s initial service locations; their research included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility. Sopra Steria can also cater for customers who wish to have more flexi-ble on-demand, mobile application services, for example at university campuses, employers’ offices or individual customers’ homes. All service centres will comply with the Equality Act 2010 and Health and Safety Act 1974, this will include the provision of wheelchair access, disabled toilets and baby changing areas.

Biometrics: Applications

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the average processing times for biometric enrolment with Sopra Steria and the Post Office.

Caroline Nokes: UKVI’s service standards for decisions are the same for applications made through both Sopra Steria and previous application arrangements.

Visas: Applications

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications Sopra Steria has processed since the commencement of its contract with his Department.

Caroline Nokes: Sopra Steria have handled 18,040 applications to date.

Offences against Children: Sports

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, how many cases of sexual abuse of children by sports coaches are under investigation by the police.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, how many police officers have been allocated to investigate claims of child sexual abuse by sports coaches in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Nick Hurd: Child sexual abuse investigations are an operational matter for the police. Police and Crime Commissioners and chief constables are best placed to decide how to deploy their officers to investigate these crimes. The police are operationally independent of Government; therefore, the Government does not hold information about the number of police officers allocated to investigate these crimes.The Home Office is providing £1.9m financial support through Police Special Grant funding to Operation Hydrant towards the coordination of child sexual abuse and exploitation investigations concerning institutional settings. Operation Hydrant publishes statistics quarterly at: https://www.npcc.police.uk/NPCCBusinessAreas/OtherWorkAreas/OpHydrant/Statistics.aspx.Latest published statistics by Operation Hydrant feature 329 sport institutions on the Operation Hydrant database up to and including the 30 September 2018. In relation to abuse in football specifically, 300 alleged suspects have been identified up to and including 29 March 2018.

Windrush Generation: Costs

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the Government's Windrush initiatives.

Caroline Nokes: At the HASC evidence session on Tuesday 15 May, the Home Secretary committed to providing the HASC with regular updates on the work of the department in relation to Windrush. The most recent update was published on 17 December 2018 and Annex A provides a Financial Overview of the Windrush Initiative up to and including Period 7 of the Financial Year 2018/19.Data would only be accurate at the time it was generated, with any answer potentially being inaccurate at the time of release. Providing a running commentary on the estimate of the cost to the public purse would not be cost and resource effective.

Police: Training

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, How many police officers have completed the training contained within the National Disclosure Plan by police force area.

Mr Nick Hurd: Statistics published by the College of Policing on 20 December 2018 show the number of officers and staff that had completed new 'disclosure and relevancy – conducting fair investigations' training as at 30 November 2018. This includes a breakdown by police force area. These are available at https://www.college.police.uk/News/College-news/Documents/Disclosure_programme_completion_figures191218v3.pdf

Refugees: Syria

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to meet the target of resettling 20,000 Syrians in need of protection during this Parliament.

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were resettled in the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme in each quarter since January 2014.

Caroline Nokes: Work continues with local authorities and international partners to deliver the Government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) by 2020 and we are on track to do this. In July 2017 we took the decision to extend the scope of the scheme to include refugees who have fled the conflict in Syria but do not have Syrian nationality. The latest published statistics show that by the end of September 2018 13,961 people have been resettled under the VPRS since the scheme began in 2014. Progress on resettlement is reported in the quarterly immigration statistics. The statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-releaseThe Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

North Wales Police: Staff

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers were employed by North Wales Police in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers employed by each police force in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis. These data are published in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins.Data on the number of police officers in North Wales, as at 31 March each year and going back to March 2007, can be found in the accompanying Open Data Table: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629362/open-data-table-police-workforce.odsThe next release of ‘Police workforce’ statistics is due to be published on 24th January, and will represent the picture as at 30 September 2018.

Asylum: Undocumented Migrants

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to his oral statement of 7 January 2019 on Migrant Crossings, Official Report column 85, whether asylum seekers arriving on the Kent Coast since 1 October 2018 have had their applications for asylum processed using standard procedures.

Caroline Nokes: Over 500 migrants, the majority of whom are Iranian nationals, attempted to travel to the UK on small vessels in 2018. The vast majority of those attempts were made in the last three months of the year.All asylum claims made in the UK are processed, managed and decided in line with Home Office policy, guidance and relevant case law and legislation. This supports an efficient and effective asylum process for the UK and ensures that asylum claims are handled in a manner that is appropriate to the individual, including ensuring any reasonable adjustments and safe-guarding needs are considered.All asylum claimants must be treated with dignity and fairness regardless of their age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or belief.An asylum claim will be registered where an individual makes a particularised protection claim for the first time, in person and in their own right. That does not mean that the UK will always be responsible for making a substantive decision.As part of that process, there is a need to assess whether what a person is saying amounts to a protection claim and if so, whether the claim is admissible to the decision-making process. Inadmissibility is a concept by which the Home Office can decline to consider an asylum claim because the individual already enjoys sufficient protection in another country, or another country is responsible for considering the claim.We are unable to state how many asylum seekers arriving on the Kent coast since 1 October 2018 have had their claims registered and processed using standard procedures, as we do not comment on the status of cases once they have claimed asylum.

Passports: Applications

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funds his Department has spent on advertisements promoting online passport applications in each of the last three years; and what funds he plans to spend on promoting online passport applications in the next financial year.

Caroline Nokes: HM Passport Office (HMPO) has an ambitious transformation plan to increase digital applications, helping to reduce operational expenditure by removing paper and customer errors from the process.In June 2016, HMPO launched its first fully digital online application service for adults renewing their passport. This launch was supported by no cost communications activity, including PR and stakeholder engagement. Last financial year (2017/18) a small scale paid search campaign, costing £9,665, was trialled to encourage customers to use the online application channel. In this financial year (2018/19) a marketing campaign, costing £536,639.04, was delivered via radio and digital advertising.A re-launch of the marketing campaign in 2019/20 has been planned, forecast at £1m. This activity is dependent on the outcome of the EU Exit withdrawal agreement.

Immigration: EU Law

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cessation of international protection decisions by nationality of applicant have been made by the UK under Article 11 and  Article 17 of Directive 2011/95/EU in 2018.

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many withdrawal of international protection decisions were made by the UK by nationality of applicant under Article 14 and Article 19 o f Directive 2011/95/EU in  2018.

Caroline Nokes: We have a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, for as long as it is needed, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention. However, refugee status is not necessarily permanent and it may be appropriate to revoke such status where it is clear someone no longer needs protection; where evidence emerges that status was obtained by deception; or where someone commits a serious crime and is a danger to the community or represents a threat to national security.We do not hold sufficiently reliable data to answer the question in the requested format.

Asylum

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average duration of the asylum procedure at first instance is in the UK.

Caroline Nokes: Information regarding the average duration of the asylum procedure is not recorded and held in a reportable format.However, the information relating to the percentage of initial asylum decisions made within the published service standard can be found on table Asy_10 of the Asylum Transparency data:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-november-2018

Asylum: Middle East

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time was for a decision to be made on an application for asylum in the UK for (a) Syrian nationals, (b) Afghan nationals and (c) Iraqi nationals in each of the last five years.

Caroline Nokes: All asylum claims lodged in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information. We ensure that claimants are given every opportunity to disclose information relevant to their claim before a decision is taken.Information regarding Asylum data is published as part of the Government’s Transparency agenda the latest release of which can be found at can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-november-2018.

Deportation: Saudi Arabia

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of safety for female refugees that are returned to Saudi Arabia.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office does not return refugees. If they have been found to require protection they are granted leave to remain in the UK on this basis. It is only when a person does not qualify for protection that they are required to leave the UK.This would only happen after full consideration of the person’s claim and the exhaustion of any appeal rights. The consideration of each claim is done on an individual, case-specific basis and with each decision taken against the background of up-to-date country of origin information and any relevant caselaw.

Immigration: Afghanistan

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he expects his Department to complete its review of family migration rules for Afghan interpreters that served alongside British armed forces and whose families could not travel to the UK at the same time under the redundancy scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The Government has committed to ensure that those Afghan interpreters relocating here can do so with their families, and we are currently considering what more we can do to make it easier for family members still in Afghanistan to join relatives already in the UK. We anticipate being able to bring forward any relevant changes to the Immigration Rules by the Spring.

Scotland Office

Scotland Office: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

David Mundell: None. There have been no non-disclosure agreements.

Cabinet Office

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Mr David Lidington: This information is not held centrally and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Cabinet Office: Billing

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many individual firms received at least one payment of an invoice from his Department after a 30-day period in each quarter of 2017-18.

Mr David Lidington: The number of individual firms who received at least one payment of an invoice from the Cabinet Office after a 30-day period, in each quarter of 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 is set out below. 2016/17Quarter 176Quarter 275Quarter 396Quarter 4101 2017/18Quarter 175Quarter 2104Quarter 3150Quarter 4195 2018/19Quarter 1227Quarter 2197 In the same period, the number of suppliers paid has increased from 491 in Q1 of 16/17 to 900 in Quarter 1 of 2018/19. The move to a new shared service platform in May 2017 presented a number of operational issues. We have been working hard to rectify the underlying issues and have implemented a number of improvements as part of a coordinated programme of work. These has led to improvements in our payment performance data with December data showing 82% of invoices paid within 5 days.

Cabinet Office: Billing

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many individual firms received at least one payment of an invoice from his Department after a 30-day period in each quarter of 2016-17.

Mr David Lidington: The number of individual firms who received at least one payment of an invoice from the Cabinet Office after a 30-day period, in each quarter of 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 is set out below. 2016/17Quarter 176Quarter 275Quarter 396Quarter 4101 2017/18Quarter 175Quarter 2104Quarter 3150Quarter 4195 2018/19Quarter 1227Quarter 2197 In the same period, the number of suppliers paid has increased from 491 in Q1 of 16/17 to 900 in Quarter 1 of 2018/19. The move to a new shared service platform in May 2017 presented a number of operational issues. We have been working hard to rectify the underlying issues and have implemented a number of improvements as part of a coordinated programme of work. These has led to improvements in our payment performance data with December data showing 82% of invoices paid within 5 days.

Cabinet Office: Billing

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many individual firms received at least one payment of an invoice from his Department after a 30-day period in the first two quarters of 2018-19.

Mr David Lidington: The number of individual firms who received at least one payment of an invoice from the Cabinet Office after a 30-day period, in each quarter of 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 is set out below. 2016/17Quarter 176Quarter 275Quarter 396Quarter 4101 2017/18Quarter 175Quarter 2104Quarter 3150Quarter 4195 2018/19Quarter 1227Quarter 2197 In the same period, the number of suppliers paid has increased from 491 in Q1 of 16/17 to 900 in Quarter 1 of 2018/19. The move to a new shared service platform in May 2017 presented a number of operational issues. We have been working hard to rectify the underlying issues and have implemented a number of improvements as part of a coordinated programme of work. These has led to improvements in our payment performance data with December data showing 82% of invoices paid within 5 days.

Cabinet Office: Staff

Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many new staff members his Department plans to recruit for the purpose of contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Mr David Lidington: Departments continually review workforce plans, reprioritise and assess changing needs, which includes identification and cessation of non-priority work where appropriate. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU Exit Implementation is carried out to high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of government. The Cabinet Office has staff working on EU exit implementation for a range of scenarios in the interests of preparedness, however the percentage of time spent on exiting the EU without a deal is not recorded or easily accessible. Cabinet Office are currently looking to increase the numbers of staff trained to be part of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to form a flexible pool to be used if and when required. This work is ongoing and the number of staff who will be part of this work is not yet available.

Civil Service: Location

Royston Smith: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress has been made on implementing the Places for Growth programme.

Mr David Lidington: The Places for Growth programme seeks to deliver the Government’s commitment to move Civil Service roles and public bodies out of London and the South East of England. This commitment was set out in the Conservative Party Manifesto of 2017 and then restated in the Industrial Strategy White Paper and the Government Estates Strategy (July 2018). The Cabinet Office is supporting departments and public bodies to identify opportunities for relocation of roles to cities across the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. The Programme is providing support and coordination across Whitehall to move roles and organisations to locations that have the skills and capacity to enable organisations and cities to flourish. The Programme is also engaging with city leaders across the UK to understand the local economic and industrial priorities which will inform the decision-making process.

Parliamentary Questions

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department issues to Government Departments on their (a) responsibilities and (b) obligations in relation to answers to (i) written and (ii) oral Parliamentary Questions.

Mr David Lidington: Guidance on responding to Parliamentary Questions can be found on Gov.uk. The ministerial code states that Ministers should be as open as possible with Parliament and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest.

Parliamentary Questions

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office,  what guidance his Department has issued to Government Departments in relation to the transfer to another Department of (a) written and (b) oral Parliamentary Questions to another Government Department to answer.

Mr David Lidington: Guidance on responding to Parliamentary Questions, and details of ministerial responsibilities, can be found on Gov.uk. As stated in the Parliamentary Questions: recent issues briefing paper published by the House of Commons Library: Ministers, via their departments, may choose to transfer the question if they think responsibility lies with another department.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Brexit

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many civil servants in his Department are currently working on planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how many have been moved from other projects to work on those plans.

George Hollingbery: The Government announced on Tuesday 18 December that no deal scenario planning was to ramp up, with departments setting contingency planning measures in motion. The Department for International Trade was created as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. All the work carried out by the Department is affected by EU Exit but individual roles are not classified according to particular EU Exit scenarios including leaving the EU without a deal.

Department for International Trade: Brexit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.

George Hollingbery: The Department of International Trade was created as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Individual roles are not classified according to particular EU Exit scenarios, including leaving without a deal. Since the department’s establishment in July 2016, DIT has grown from 2,504 to 3,925 at the end of December 2018. These figures includes staff working at UK Export Finance (UKEF). The DIT workforce is ready to respond to a range of EU Exit scenarios. The numbers of additional staff needed will depend on the nature and timing of those scenarios and on the Government’s policy priorities. The figures above include all people engaged in DIT and UKEF business activities. This includes employees (including those working overseas), contractors and those on loan from other government departments or seconded from organisations external to the Civil Service.

Exports

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans his Department has to support UK businesses to increase exports after the UK leaves the EU.

Graham Stuart: The UK produces billions of pounds worth of high-quality goods and services each year, and there is a clear demand from around the world for these products with UK exports rising 2.0% (12bn) to £626.4bn, in the 12 months ending October 2018. [ONS UK Trade: October 2018]. The Export Strategy, launched in August 2018, sets out how the Government will encourage, inform, connect and finance UK businesses to enable them to take advantage of this international demand. The Department for International Trade’s offer to UK businesses includes impartial export advice from International Trade Advisors and our overseas network in markets across the world. British businesses are also promoted via the government’s network of Trade Envoys and given assistance in the Midlands and Northern Powerhouse through our Export Champions. The Department also runs a major UK facing marketing campaign called “Exporting is Great” which inspires and encourages business to start exporting and seek new markets. The campaign is UK wide and includes a mobile outreach export hub.  DIT is building on the Export Strategy with a whole of Government Approach and has recently enhanced digital service on great.gov.uk which allows business to connect to over 20,000 export opportunities and ensures finance is at the heart of its offer: in 2017/18 UKEF provided £2.5bn in support, helping 191 UK companies sell to 75 markets around the world. 77% of these companies were SMEs.  The full Export Strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-strategy-supporting-and-connecting-businesses-to-grow-on-the-world-stage

Trade Agreements

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on future trade agreements between the UK and non-EU countries of the UK remaining within a WTO-defined customs union with the EU (a) after 29 March 2019, (b) during the transition period and (c) after the transition period ends.

George Hollingbery: Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, the UK will be free to negotiate, sign, and ratify FTAs during the Implementation Period. During the Backstop, if it were ever to come into effect, we would be free to operate our own independent trade policy, including by negotiating our own FTAs, and implementing the areas that don’t affect the functioning of the backstop - including services and investment. As agreed in the Political Declaration, the UK’s future relationship with the EU must recognise the development of an independent UK trade policy. The government has been clear that we will not be in the Single Market or the Customs Union as part of this.

Trade Agreements

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on future trade agreements and negotiations between the UK and non-EU countries caused by the UK remaining bound by the requirements of the EU's common commercial policy.

George Hollingbery: EU law (including the Common Commercial Policy) will apply in the UK during the Implementation Period. We have agreed with the EU that we will be able to negotiate, sign and ratify new trade deals during the Implementation Period. As recognised in the Political Declaration, the UK’s future relationship with the EU will need to recognise the development of an independent UK trade policy.

Trade Agreements

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many free trade agreements to which the UK is a party through its EU membership will be rolled over in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 30 March 2019; and which countries those agreements will be with.

George Hollingbery: In the event of a ‘no deal’, the Government will seek to bring into force bilateral agreements from exit day (29 March 2019) or as soon as possible thereafter. Ministers and officials are engaging regularly with partner countries to complete this work and are making good progress. For example, the Swiss Federal Council have approved the text of a UK-Swiss Free Trade Agreement that replicates the effects of the existing EU-Swiss arrangements as far as possible. However, when we reach agreement will depend on the progress of these ongoing discussions. The Government will inform Parliament and the public when agreements are signed.

Overseas Trade: Turkey

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the UK has secured an agreement with Turkey to continue trading after 30 March 2019 on the same terms on which it currently trades with that country; and if he will make a statement.

George Hollingbery: The Government remains focused on ensuring continuity in our existing trading arrangements. We have committed to informing Parliament when agreements are signed with partner countries. Discussions with Turkey are ongoing. Achieving continuity with Turkey is particularly complex because it shares a customs union with the EU. If we don’t reach a deal with the EU, then reaching a deal with Turkey will be challenging. The Government wants our future customs arrangements with both the EU and Turkey to enable as friction-less trade as possible. The deal that the Government has agreed with the EU and has put before Parliament aims to achieve this.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Brexit

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with (a) companies and (b) trade associations advising the Government on preparations for contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Margot James: Government Departments continue to engage with a wide range of businesses to understand their priorities and issues as we leave the European Union, both to inform our negotiating position, and our preparations in the unlikely event of there being no deal. Departments can make use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when structuring their engagements on preparations for leaving the EU, which is a crucial component of planning. It is for departments to determine the manner in which engagement with stakeholders takes place. Given the sensitive nature of some discussions, there may be limited circumstances in which departments have used NDAs to enable those conversations, thereby reaching more stakeholders than would otherwise be the case. NDAs are also a common component of contractual arrangements that are used to protect commercial considerations of the parties involved or to protect sensitives around the development of Government policy. It is entirely normal practice to use such agreements and they are therefore sometimes necessary for Government departments who are responsible for managing their preparations for leaving the EU.

Sports: Offences against Children

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the number of victims of child sexual abuse by sports coaches that have come forward in the last five years.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate the Government has made of the number of children sexually abused by sports coaches in each year for which information is available.

Mims Davies: My department does not collect information about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in sport. Child sexual abuse investigations and statistics are managed by the police. The latest figures from Operation Hydrant, which coordinates non-recent child sexual abuse and exploitation investigations concerning institutional settings, show 329 sport institutions as being on the Operation Hydrant database up to and including 30 September 2018.  Operation Hydrant has also published separate statistics relating to non-recent child sexual abuse in football, up to and including 29 March 2018. These show that, at the time of publication, there were 849 alleged victims and 300 alleged suspects of non-recent child sexual abuse in football. These figures do not show in which years the alleged abuse took place, nor the relationship between the alleged perpetrator and victim. Since March 2018, football-related statistics have been captured in the Operation’s broader quarterly statistics. Ensuring that sport is a safe environment for all young people is one of my top priorities, and my department works closely with Sport England and the Child Protection in Sport Unit to strengthen provision wherever possible. To support these efforts, I am committed to working closely with the Ministry of Justice to extend the definition of a ‘position of trust’ in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to include sports coaches who hold a position of trust in relation to a child aged 16 or 17 under their care.

Gambling: Children

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to limit children’s exposure to gambling adverts during sporting events.

Mims Davies: There are strict controls on the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online. Gambling operators who advertise in the UK must comply with the advertising codes, which aim to ensure gambling advertising does not target or appeal particularly to children or young people. TV adverts must be pre-cleared by Clearcast and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acts on complaints and proactively checks the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. The Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising requires all TV and print adverts to carry an 18+ or ‘no under 18s’ message. As with advertising, sponsorship arrangements must be socially responsible and must never be targeted at children. Operators’ logos must not appear on any commercial merchandising which is designed for children, including replica football shirts in children’s sizes. Our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections further. These include tougher guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people, with further guidance on children and young people due soon, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign, which will include responsible gambling messages around sports. The gambling industry and broadcasters have announced additional initiatives to limit the advertising seen around sport. The Industry Group for Responsible Gambling will amend its advertising code to include a ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban on all TV betting adverts during pre-watershed live sport, including for 5 minutes before and after play. It has announced that the changes are expected to come into effect in summer. Sky will also offer customers the option to opt out of TV gambling adverts from 2020. These are welcome steps by industry to respond to public concerns, and it is important that all those who benefit from gambling advertising think about how they can be socially responsible. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.

Football: Sportsgrounds

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his timetable is for publishing his review of safe standing in football stadia.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the Government's policy is on safe standing at football matches.

Mims Davies: We believe that all-seater stadia are currently the best means to ensure the safety and security of fans at designated football matches in England and Wales, but we continue to work closely with the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and football authorities to consider relevant advances in technology and data. My officials met CFE Research in December 2018 to share emerging findings from the evidence review into standing at football. We expect to receive the final report on the findings of the evidence review shortly.

Sports: Finance

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of sports funding at a grassroots level.

Mims Davies: We are committed to supporting more people to take part in sport and physical activity so that they can enjoy the significant and wide-ranging benefits that this brings. Through Sport England, over 2016-2021, government is investing over £1.2 billion in supporting people to be more active, including a specific focus on those people who are inactive and engaging people from underrepresented groups. This is over £170m more than Sport England's previous strategy period (2012/13 – 2015/16).

Sports: Drugs

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will increase the resources provided to UK Anti-Doping.

Mims Davies: UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is an Arm's Length Body of DCMS and acts as the UK's National Anti-Doping Organisation. A Tailored Review of UKAD has been conducted with a report being published last year making a number of recommendations. As part of this process, the Government awarded an additional £6.1m funding to UKAD over two years which consolidates its position as one of the best resourced National Anti-Doping Organisations in the world.

Kick It Out

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings (a) he and (b) his Ministers have had with Kick It Out in the last five years.

Mims Davies: DCMS Ministers and officials meet a number of stakeholders in sport on a regular basis. ‘Kick it Out’ has been a powerful voice working within football to tackle all forms of discrimination for the last 25 years. They were among the key attendees to a homophobia in sport roundtable event DCMS hosted in 2018, and DCMS and the Home Office partnered with the organisation and the Premier League to launch at that event new guidance to help football club safety officers and stewards deal with homophobic, biphobic and transphobic abuse, as well as a short film to raise awareness of gay and transsexual inclusion in football. The Kick it Out app remains the most-used reporting mechanism relating to incidents of discrimination within football.

Sports: Homophobia

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to reduce homophobia in sport.

Mims Davies: There is no place for homophobia in sport. Sports must come together to tackle homophobia and discrimination of any kind, and ensure that sport is at the forefront of equality. Sports, from grassroots to elite, should continue to work with organisations such as Stonewall, Pride Sport and Kick It Out to make sport more inclusive. In 2017 government worked in partnership with Kick It Out to issue guidance to stewards on tackling homophobia in sport. The cross-government sport strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ seeks to ensure that access to sport is equal for all and that everyone can enjoy taking part. Sport England, our national sport council, will soon be releasing new LGBT insight, which will explore the barriers and motivations around participation, as well as a LGBT sport infrastructure review report.

Sports: Racial Discrimination

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to reduce racism in sport.

Mims Davies: There is absolutely no place for racism in sport or anywhere in society. Sport clubs and fans must continue to embrace diversity and tackle racism whenever they encounter it. The cross-government sport strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ seeks to ensure that access to sport is equal for all. Government is supportive of anti-racism initiatives from grassroots to elite sport, including Show Racism the Red Card and Kick It Out. Grassroots sport also receives support in tackling racism from our national sport council, Sport England, who provide free support and learning through its "Club Matters" programme.

Sports: Hate Crime

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to reduce (a) sexism and (b) misogyny in sport.

Mims Davies: There is no place for sexism and misogyny in sport. It is vital that sports continue to work together to tackle this issue and act on reports of sexism and indeed discrimination of any kind. We are determined to get more girls and women playing sport and want to see more women in leadership positions across sport too - whether playing, coaching, on the medical and support side, or at board level. This is something we set out in our sport strategy, Sporting Future. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign is continuing to encourage women and girls to take up sport and physical activity and UK Sport and Sport England’s Code for Sport Governance includes a target of at least 30% gender diversity on boards.

Football: Finance

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings the Government has had with the Football Association on investment in grassroots football following the collapse of the sale of Wembley.

Mims Davies: DCMS officials have met with the FA since the Wembley decision. I met with Martin Glenn, the FA's Chief Executive in November the first of the regular discussions I will have with the FA and the Premier League to reaffirm our commitment to working together to significantly improve the provision and quality of football facilities and increase participation levels, and to deliver wider social benefits. Government in partnership with football is currently investing more money than ever before in community football programmes and facilities and I fully intend the funding levels that go into this area to continue.

Football: World Cup

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings (a) he or (b) his Ministers have had with the Football Association on a World Cup 2030 bid.

Mims Davies: Ministers, including the Secretary of State, have regular discussions with The Football Association, on a range of matters. As the Prime Minister said last year, the UK government would support a bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup should the football associations decide to proceed with one. The English FA are working together with the FAs of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland to explore the feasibility of a joint bid.

Gambling: Advertising

Thelma Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to restrict TV advertising relating to the gambling industry.

Mims Davies: There are strict controls on the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online. Gambling operators who advertise in the UK must comply with the advertising codes, which aim to ensure gambling advertising does not target or appeal particularly to children or young people, or exploit vulnerable people. TV adverts must be pre-cleared by Clearcast and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acts on complaints and proactively checks the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. Our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections further. These include tougher guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people, with further guidance on children and young people due soon, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign. The Industry Group for Responsible Gambling has announced that it will extend its commitment not to advertise on TV before 9pm to include advertising during sporting events. It has announced that the changes are expected to come into effect in summer. Its industry-wide code for socially responsible advertising also requires all TV adverts to feature a responsible gambling message for the duration of the advert. Separately, Sky will offer customers the option to opt out of TV gambling adverts from 2020. These are welcome steps by industry to respond to public concerns, and it is important that all those who benefit from gambling advertising think about how they can be socially responsible. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.

Television: Disability Aids

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions his Department has had with interest groups on audio description for TV.

Margot James: Government officials have met with interest groups and stakeholders regarding accessibility for visual and hearing impaired consumers, specifically for on-demand services. In December 2017 DCMS asked Ofcom to provide recommendations on making on-demand services more accessible to a wider range of consumers, including the hearing impaired. Ofcom consulted on this, and published its report in December 2018 with recommendations on the scope of new regulations for on-demand services. Government will continue to engage with interested parties as we take this matter forward.

Women and Equalities

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Health on making the NHS cervical screening programme available to women aged 18 years and over.

Victoria Atkins: The best independent evidence shows that routine screening of women under 25 actually does more harm than good. Cervical cancer in women under the age of 25 is very rare and younger women often undergo natural and harmless changes in the cervix that screening would identify as abnormalities, resulting in many false negatives.We offer vaccination to girls to protect against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which protects against 70 per cent of cervical cancers and which is expected to reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and allow them to be protected for years to come.Young women with symptoms of cervical cancer, largely unusual bleeding particularly after sex, should see their GP and be referred to a gynecologist if clinically appropriate.My Rt Hon Friend the Minister for Women and Equalities has no plans to discuss this issue with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Employment

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what representations she has received on the work of (a) Home Start and (b) other charities providing support for young families and carers; and if she will discuss with the Chancellor of the Exchequer the provision of additional funding for those charities to enable more help to be given to people returning to work.

Victoria Atkins: The government launched a £1.5 million grant fund in the private sector to support people to return to work. Our grant fund is enabling charities and other organisations to launch projects for people who are currently out of work due to caring responsibilities and want to return to permanent employment. Home-Start have previously applied for this GEO funding. We have recently announced further funding to support those with additional barriers to participating in the labour market – including people who speak little English, people with disabilities, and those who are homeless or have been victims of domestic abuse. GEO is scoping how best to deliver this and will engage closely with HMT in advance of the next spending review to decide whether and how further funding should be allocated to helping people return to work.